Ethan Yeager in Lawndale
by Shiva-J
Summary: During their visit with the Morgendorffers, the Yeagers wind up moving to Lawndale and Ethan Yeager comes out of the closet to Daria and Quinn, and he is quickly sucked into the madness of Lawndale, and adds to it as well...
1. Chapter 1: Ethan Yeager Rising

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch1 Ethan Yeager Rising **

Two middle-age men were carrying a large cardboard box into a decent looking but small(ish) ranch home in the suburb of Lawndale.

"Ok just set it down here Jake, we'll get it later." Coyote wheezed before he and Jake Morgendorffer set down the very last of the Yeager's possessions onto the floor.

"You know for living the whole 'simplistic life' thing you guys sure have a lot of stuff." Jake wheezed right back to his old friend as he collapsed onto a sofa that had been left behind by the previous tenants.

"Well you know how things can accumulate over time…" Coyote replied weakly as he sat down next to him. "Besides most of it is stuff we picked up recently, and a lot of that is for our business. And thanks again for the idea of becoming an online order service, we've grown so fast since then it's still kinda…"

"Trippy?" Jake supplied as he pulled out a discreet hip flask.

"Yup," Coyote replied while eyeing Jake taking a swig of whatever booze was in that flask, "Trippy."

* * *

In the smallest of the three bedrooms that the house contained, three teenagers were also slacking from the whole 'moving' project that had been inflicted on then by their elders. Instead of unpacking things, they were sitting on the bare carpet, since the bedframe hadn't been put back together yet and the mattress was... Somewhere.

"Why didn't you get the bigger room Ethan?" the younger Morgendorffer sister, Quinn asked in her annoyingly cutesy voice.

"Office space, so the rents can work at home and in their new workshop in town." The boy in the black shirt, jeans, and sandals replied in his usual disinterested monotone.

"So they can sell out to 'the Man' even faster than they are now?" Daria Morgendorrfer replied with an ironic Mona Lisa half-smile.

"Yeah something like that." Ethan replied, once more in bored tones.

In order to keep the conversation going, Quinn then asked, "It was nice of the last owners to leave all this stuff behind for you guys, cus I saw some of what was packed and it didn't seem like you had a whole lot to work with to have a decent place to live."

"It was left behind because the last owners were evicted by the bank because they didn't keep up on the house payments." Daria answered, killing that line of thought before Quinn dug the hole any further.

"It's how my parents got this house so cheap." Ethan added, a hint of amusement in his tone.

But, Quinn being Quinn, decided that now was the time to drop more hints about a date to Ethan, even more blatant than the ones she had used before they had all been drafted to do actual _work_.

Daria took note of Ethan's face, for the first time since she had met him (granted that had only been a few weeks prior) his thinly veiled annoyance at Quinn's interest in him was pretty obvious to see.

"Well to be honest he does look good, but he isn't Trent… Eep!" Daria thought to herself, even her subconscious was embarrassed at the thought of Trent Lane, the older brother of her only friend in the world.

The red-haired son of hippy holdovers took in a deep breath while ignoring Quinn's mention of some French restaurant that he had never heard of and decided that it was better if he just killed this line of thought for her _now _before she went any further.

"No offence Quinn, you are cute and all but I prefer guys." Ethan stated, doing a good job of maintaining his normal voice, but Daria heard the slight crack at the last words, the hints of uncertainty of and fear at revealing this to them.

For a minute it seemed as if Quinn hadn't heard him, but then his words registered in her largely unused brain.

"Chez Pierre is soooo beautiful…. What?!"

"I prefer guys." Ethan repeated for her obvious benefit.

For a moment Ethan Yeager had done the impossible, he had stunned Quinn Morgendorffer, Popular Fashionista extraordinaire to flabbergasted silence.

But alas, at least in Daria's mind, her sister bounced right back with, "Oh…. Oh... Oh! Well this explains a lot, because usually guys are all over me in like five seconds… So this isn't a joke right, your gay?"

"Yup, I'm gay." Ethan said, borrowing from a famous headline that had shocked the segments of the nation that were still shocked that Gays and Lesbians existed.

"Thank _Gawd_, I was getting worried that I was losing my looks or something." Quinn thought to herself, but aloud she answered, "Oh that's cool, but this means that you'll need a new wardrobe, if you're going to be out at Lawndale and all. I mean everyone needs to be fashionable and all but now you especially will need a complete overhaul, let me make some calls."

Quinn rushed out of the room in a whirlwind as she said all this, not giving either misanthrope time to articulate an answer or an insult.

"What just happened?" Ethan asked, only partly to himself.

"I think you just became Quinn's latest dressing doll." Daria replied, secretly relived that now she had someone to deflect Quinn's attention on.

"Great… What happened to simple living?" Ethan snarked.

"It went the way of the mail-order hemp hammock dinosaur." Daria retorted with a second Mona Lisa smile.

Ethan returned it with a half-smile of his own and thought, "This chick is cool."

But then to keep shifting gear away from Quinn and her most likely ever growing fantasy of taking _a_ _gay guy shopping!_ Daria asked a question that had been burning in her gut for some time now.

"So your parents are named Coyote and Willow… Why did they name you Ethan?"

"Well they were going to name me 'Elrond Rainbow Yeager', but my Grandma gave them a thousand dollars to name me after Grandpa Yeager."

"New topic?" Daria asked in reply.

"Name it." Ethan replied.

* * *

"This is going to be soooo much fun Stacy! But you got to promise me that you won't tell a soul." Quinn said to her squealing friend on the other end of the phone.

"Of course Quinn," Stacy Rowe, "I mean we'll need to come up with a plan for next Saturday's shopping trip, I mean we can't very well leave his fashion sense in the hands of those… yuppies!"

"Hippies, Stacy, hippies." Quinn corrected Stacy once again, and tuned out her 'Sorry' by instinct, "Yuppies are the ones that drink coffee, which is even worse than the hippie's cus all that coffee _has _to be ruining their teeth… ugh!"

Both girls shuddered at the thought of coffee-stain teeth, or even worse, having coffee-stained teeth of their own.

"Once everyone sees what the Fashion Club has done for him, they will totally think we are, you know, forward-marching and stuff." Quinn added, trying to scrub her brain of those horrible images.

"Yeah!" Stacy replied in excitement.

"Quinn!" the loud voice of her mother called out from somewhere in the house, "Where are you, we have to unpack the kitchen stuff!"

"Uh… Stacy I have to go, bye."

The phone disconnected, Stacy then spent the next five minutes crying after trying to say that she was agreeing with Quinn.

Now Stacy fully intended to keep her word to Quinn and not breathe a word about that guy she had been talking about for last two weeks and she hadn't, not even to Sandi who had been _very _interested in why Quinn had been distracted.

However now with the info that the guy…. Ethan right? Yes Ethan, wasn't interested in her because he was gay, Stacy still intended to keep quiet.

However as Secretary of the Fashion Club, she had to call the other members in order to get the latest updates from both Vice President Quinn Morgendorffer and the President of the Club, Sandi Griffin.

It only took Sandi about two minutes and thirteen seconds figure out that Stacy was hiding something and one minute and four seconds to crack her and get the scoop of a lifetime before she hung up on her (again) crying friend and began making some calls.

Within about two hours, the word had spread through the grapevine that there was a new kid coming to Lawndale High, a gay one and with weirdo hippy parents to boot.

In one fell swoop, Sandi Griffin had found a way to both humiliate Quinn Morgendorffer and undercut her growing popularity, thus maintaining equilibrium in the social hierarchy.

"Monday will suck for Evan or Ethan or whatever his name is though," a teeny tiny voice in Sandi's head whispered to her before being viciously smacked down in a manner that would make her mother very proud.

* * *

"So this is the infamous Casa Lane?" Ethan Yeager asked as he took in the sight of the slightly disheveled house while Daria rang the door.

"If you call it a dump you'd be telling the truth but I'll hurt you for the principle never the less." Daria replied while they waited for an answer.

"Meh… I've seen worse," Ethan replied, "In fact I've lived in worse."

Just as he finished the sentence, the sound of a lock being turned could be heard and then the door opened.

"Hey Daria." A tall and scrawny guy answered, "Who's this?"

"Trent, this is Ethan Yeager, Ethan this is Trent Lane, Jane's older brother."

Ethan was quiet, drinking in the sight of Trent Lane, with his dark hair and eyes, soul patch beard, the multiple piercings and tribal tattoos, and slightly ragged clothes.

"He's beautiful… Ethan start talking… **NOW**!" His inner voice roared at him, making his ears ring and his jittery stomach even jitterier.

"Um… Hey man." Ethan managed to murmur.

"Jayne's waiting for you upstairs, and Daria?" Trent asked while Daria and Ethan slipped in and had begun to head towards the stairs, "You sure he's cool right?"

"Yeah Trent, Ethan's cool." Daria replied.

"Cool," Trent answered while picking up a guitar that was propped up on the wall nearby, "I'll see you later, I'm heading to Max's to practice."

As the door closed behind him, Ethan began to ask the obvious question which Daria was ready to answer.

"Yeah, Trent's in a band, called Mystik Spiral, though they've been thinking of changing the name for, oh, forever."

"Oh that's cool." Ethan answered while he followed Daria through the strangely quiet house.

"Mystik Spiral? Sounds like a band that plays bad covers from the 60s." Ethan thought to himself as they reached another door and Daria knocked again.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Jane Lane said as Daria walked beside her, and this new guy, Ethan walked on Daria's other side, "Your Dad actually made you sit through the film of Quinn's birth? That could scar you for life."

"The birth alone would be enough for that." Ethan quipped, earning a small laugh from both girls.

But as the three of them came within sight of the theater, an annoyingly loud and high pitched squeak of a voice stopped Daria and Jane in their tracks.

"But Kevey, this is the Food in Film Festival, are you sure you brought enough?"

"Sure babe." A guy's voice replied.

"This isn't going to be good." Jane said in warning to Ethan as he was about to get his first dose of his fellow classmates at Lawndale High.

As they got closer Ethan saw standing at the end of the line a tall blond bombshell of a girl wearing a cheerleading uniform, and next to her was a dopey looking jock boy in his full football gear.

"Oh hey Daria, Janey."the girl said as the noticed the three of them, she twirled her blond hair through a finger, then she peered at Ethan and then looked at both Daria and Jane and asked, "Is he one of your dates?"

"Nope." Daria replied.

"Oh not me either," Jane replied in turn, "I'm holding out for a rich boy to sweep me off my feet."

"Really?" Britney asked, "Cus I don't really think there's a lot of those available, no offence."

"None taken Britney." Jane answered, clearly amused at her obliviousness.

"What's your name bro?" Kevin asked, changing topics in a very rare moment of tact.

"Ethan." He answered.

"Ethan… Ethan…" Kevin murmured to himself, oblivious to standing right next to the Ethan in question in the line for the film.

The name clicked for Britney, she gasped and then said, "Oh you're the new guy everyone's been talking about, the gay…. I mean the gay new…. No wait I mean the _new kid."_

Kevin was still saying Ethan's name aloud in a murmur, still struggling to make the mental connection of what the school gossip had told him earlier.

"What?" Daria and Ethan both said in shock, both of them wondering how in the world she knew….

"_Quinn." _Daria said quietly in very dark tones within a few seconds of thinking.

"Um…" Britney nervously said while playing with her hair even more than usual…" We've gotta go, come on Kevey. Let's go someplace we can be _alone._"

"Alright!" Kevin exclaimed in excitement, "Just a sec Brit."

Kevin then handed Ethan the bag of groceries and then took off in the wake of his girlfriend who had already run off.

"What was that?" Jane asked, more to herself than anyone else.

Ethan sighed and then wearily began to explain things, with Daria's help when it came to figuring out where the leak came from.

"Oh." Jane said quietly once her friend and Ethan finished talking, "Oh I'm so sorry Ethan, I bet you were hoping to come out differently."

"Yeah." He replied in a masklike monotone that Jane found oddly similar to Daria's usual speaking voice.

"Well… Do you guys just want to skip the art film and watch TV back at my place?" Jane Lane offered quietly while waving her arm in the general direction of her home.

"Nah," Ethan said while stepping forward in line, now just one person away from the ticket booth, "We came to deconstruct a Russian Art Film, then deconstruct a Russian Art Film we shall. The rest… We'll deal with later."

Right behind him and unseen by anyone else, Daria smiled.

* * *

"Yum." Jane said after she swallowed the last bite of her apple and threw the apple core at a nearby trash can where by some twist of fate it managed to make contact.

"I have to admit it was nice of that guy to abandon all that food for us, but I wonder why he brought it in the first place." Ethan said while eyeballing the last of the produce in the bag.

"Knowing Kevin, it probably involved throwing it at the screen when Igor finished his asparagus." Daria said.

"Or maybe when they served Anna the cake." Jane added for effect.

As the three of them stepped out of the theater, the skies had darkened considerably, the first signs that a storm was coming.

"Good I was feeling too dry." Ethan said to himself.

"Why does that sound familiar." Jane asked herself in her thoughts.

Then a voice that Daria and Jane recognized in an instant emerged from behind them, "Oh hello Daria, Jane."

All three teens turned and saw the figure right behind them, a middle-aged man in brown slacks, a cheap pink shirt with a smiley face button.

"Oh hello Mr. O'Neill." Daria said, hiding her annoyance as best she could, which wasn't all that good to be honest.

"I'm just so invigorated by the sight of youngsters enjoying timeless cinema." O'Neill replied with sickeningly high levels of enthusiasm.

"They just don't make movies like that today though…" he continued while Jane whispered to Ethan, "He's our Language Arts teacher."

"Language Arts?" Ethan asked in reply, a touch too loud for a whisper.

"Oh, well, it's technically English class, but just calling it 'English' just seemed so… Sad." The teacher butted in with an answer.

"Oh, ok whatever." Ethan answered in reply.

"Say kids would you like a ride home, it looks like it's about to rain." Mr. O'Neill said, finally noticing the sky.

A peal of thunder rolled by and a few drops of rain slowly began to fall.

* * *

As the cheap sedan moved at a sedate pace through the pouring rain, the teacher glanced at his rear-view mirror to see the three figures sitting in the back, Daria and Jane were sitting on either side of the back with a teen boy he didn't recognize sitting in the middle.

To break the ice, O'Neill said, "It seems as though film is a better mirror of our times than novels, perhaps it has something to do with the medium's greater verisimilitude.

"Uh… What's verisimilitude?" Jane asked.

"Meh… Movies are easier on the eyes than books for most people." Ethan replied.

"Well they are faster, read out the big words for you, and don't take up as much time as actual reading, so is it shocking that the unwashed masses prefer movies?" Daria asked, while trying to shut down the conversation.

Mr. O'Neill snapped his fingers in his unbridled excitement, "Daria that's a great idea for a class assignment, thanks."

"What?" Daria replied, getting a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach.

A little later after they were dropped off at Jane's, the rain still pouring from the sky, Ethan asked them both.

"Ok, I'm going to need as much info as possible for tomorrow, if that guy's any sign of what I'm going to be putting up with."

"Oh trust me," Daria said while wringing out her hair on Jane's living room floor, "This is just the beginning."

* * *

"So remind me again why it took two weeks before you introduced us?" Jane asked while she, Daria, and Ethan walked towards the red-brick prison to which the teens of Lawndale were imprisoned for eight hours a day.

"Because he and his parents were busy setting up their storefront and moving into their house at the same time." Daria replied.

"Ahhh…" Jane replied after an awkward silence fell upon the trio again, it had been happening a lot this Monday morning.

"At least they are trying to fill the void for me." Ethan thought to himself as Lawndale High loomed closer and closer.

He caught his reflection in a passing car window; he had taken more thought than he normally did in his appearance, in that he had stared at his bathroom mirror for a long moment before throwing on his usual attire of a black shirt, shredded and faded jeans, and cheap black sandals.

"I'm not going to change for these people; they will just have to take me as I am." Ethan thought to himself. It was the guiding philosophy that had been his standard in his last school too, but it hadn't led to anyone befriending him.

"And why, to those ignorant rednecks, I was the fruity son of the pot smoking commie hippies." Ethan thought to himself, his thoughts turning back to that hellhole.

"And here we are, hell." Daria's voice cut through his mental dialogue.

"Make sure to tip the ferry man on your way in." Jane added.

"Oh I'll make sure to feed Cerberus a bone as well." Ethan said, coming up with this on the fly, already noticing the curious stares of the other students who were also heading towards the main entrance.

* * *

The first hour was something of a blur; the brief tour given by the Principal had been useful in that it revealed that Daria's worse assessments were completely correct. Mrs. Li was a petty tyrant in search for that next scrap of power and control she hadn't already found.

The psychological exam was a joke, the 'psychologist' was an even bigger one, but his parents had spent time with Timothy Leary who had _written _most of those tests.

Through cultural osmosis alone, Ethan was able to give her the answers that wouldn't have him put into a psych ward, or that innate class that Daria and Jane had warned him about.

Then it was time to head to class, and see if this Mrs. Barch was the harridan that she had been made out to be.

* * *

"Yeager, Ethan" Janet Barch called out in a bark, already sickened by the thought of another… **MAN!** In one of _her _classes.

"Present." He answered in a dull, disinterested voice.

Everyone else in the room them made a slightly amusing business of trying to look at Ethan without actually looking at him.

He was seated next to a boy who was wearing a blue track suit jacket, baggy dark blue cargo pants, white trainers, and had had his ears and right eyebrow pierced.

The boy in question turned to look at Ethan and said, "Hey, I'm Josh."

"I know that," Ethan replied, "You said 'here' when the teacher called out 'Decker, Josh' during kiddie roll call.

"Smooth move Casanova," Josh thought to himself as they both sensed a disturbance in the force, Mrs. Barch was heading their way.

"So if you **MEN **would kindly give your attention to me, we can begin today's lesson." The tall, well-built woman said leering over the two of them.

"While it might, _might, _be unfair to ask a new student this question, I want to see what you know." Janet Barch said in a much lower, more dangerous tone.

"Today's lesson will continue to cover Charles Darwin and his work on the Theory of Evolution; can you tell us what first inspired Charles to begin studying the origins of life?"

Ethan kept his voice as emotionless as humanly possible and began, "Darwin was known to have been interested in Natural History since his early education in science. However it was during his time on the HMS Beagle visiting the Galapagos Islands that various species, like mockingbirds, had developed into different types of species on each separate island."

"Thus was born the Theory of Evolution, which has been an endless headache for the religious ever since." Ethan finished, not breaking his stride with a breath he had taken in the middle of his recitation.

Mrs. Barch was silent for a very long moment; the whole class had openly turned to look at the pair before she said carefully.

"That was very good… Almost, too good." Then she strode away back to the blackboard and began to pick up where Ethan had left off.

"At least she didn't go off on one of her rants." Josh said quietly to Ethan.

"Yeah I heard about those from Daria."

"Daria?" Josh asked before he remembered, "Oh the girl in the ugly coat, I'm surprised she told you anything other than a sarcastic putdown."

"Our parents are old friends, they helped us move in." was Ethan's answer.

"Oh." Josh replied, trying his best to get the new guy to open up a bit, "Well listen if you need a friendly face at the end of the day, you can come by my place for sodas or something."

Ethan couldn't help but smile inside at this kid's persistence, and chose to say, "Maybe."

* * *

His next two classes before lunch were Economics with Mrs. Bennett, which was easier when he ignored her chalkboard drawings and just listened to her voice, and Art, which he thankfully shared with Jane and Daria.

He had managed to make a good impression in that class by revealing a flare for drawing, but it wasn't anything compared to Daria's friend Jane.

"Wow." Ethan had thought when he had gotten a look at what Jane was working on. "Simply wow."

But in both of those classes and in the halls he had heard the whispers, seen the quick glances, but nothing overt had occurred, yet.

Then when Ethan was closing the door to his new locker before heading to lunch he was grabbed from behind and shoved up against it.

"Oww, Hey what the…" he managed to sputter while his face was ground into the metal by a big meaty hand.

"Welcome to Lawndale High fairy bitch!" An angry voice roared in his ear before Ethan heard the sound of someone being punched and whoever it was that had pushed him up against the locker was shoved away.

Ethan flipped around to look at his savior, and the douchebag that had attacked him, sprawled on the floor out cold was a jock boy with bleached blond hair, a black goatee, lots of muscle, and a face that screamed "IDIOT!"

Standing over the sprawled figure was a muscular guy in punk attire, with blue spiked hair, countless piercings, tattoos up and down his arms, and combat boots.

"You alright?" the Punk asked.

"Yeah." Ethan replied weakly.

"We'd better get out of here before the teachers come." The Punk replied and motioned Ethan to follow.

As they headed quickly to the cafeteria, the punk introduced himself as Bob and explained that he saw Rex (the jock involved) unhook the security camera that was angled to view the lockers near Ethan's and decided to see what transpired and help out if needed.

"But why?" Ethan asked.

"Because we can't let these meatheads have their way, besides when he unhooked the camera it was the perfect change to beat up a Jock and not have Mrs. Li up my ass about it." Bob replied just before they entered the cafeteria and Bob the Punk headed towards the lunch line.

Ethan however had the vegan lunch his mother had prepared earlier in a bag, now Ethan often ate meat on the sly, recently joined by his dad in fact, but he reasoned that the food made at home was safer than anything served in _any _High School.

It only took a minute to find Daria and Jane, having an entire table in an overcrowded cafeteria to themselves.

"Hey gals," Ethan said as he sat down next to Daria, "You don't' mind right?"

"Oh I'm sure our millions of friends will complain, but other than that your welcome right there." Daria quipped.

"Got room for two more?" A voice said from behind them.

Ethan turned and saw Josh from Science class and standing next to him was a guy that looked _exactly _like Shaggy from the old Scooby Doo cartoons.

"With the other Pariahs?" Ethan asked rhetorically before Jane and Daria could respond, "Sure why not?"

Thus for the first time in Lawndale history, there was a grand total of five people and Daria and Jane's table.

* * *

"So what brings you guys here?" Jane asked, quite curious at this turn of events.

"Josh wanted to talk to Ethan." Shaggy answered, even his _voice_ sounding like the cartoon character.

"Then why are you here?" Daria asked in reply.

"I couldn't think of anything else to do since Kelly is out sick and I have no one else to talk too." Shaggy answered.

Ethan couldn't resist a smile at this exchange, it certainly made up for nearly having his face ground into powder on his locker.

"Well you wanted to talk, so talk." Ethan said to Josh in the meanwhile, the words coming out ruder than he intended.

"Well… uhmm…" Josh stammered at that, having a very hard time thinking while being so close to the beautiful lanky boy next to him.

"Articulation is clearly not your friend right now." Jane quipped.

"Well Ethan I just wanted to say that if you don't want to sit with them you don't have to, you can join me and Shaggy where we usually sit."

Ethan looked back at Josh, taking note of his flushed behavior, was he… interested?

"Well I've already gotten to know Daria and I'd like to talk to Jane for a bit, maybe later, like at your place?"

"Really?!" Josh answered breathlessly, stunned that Ethan was going to come over after all.

"Why not?" Ethan answered in reply, now slightly curious as to where this was all heading.

"Great!" Josh answered, now happy as a clam and beaming the biggest smile that anyone at Lawndale High had ever seen on him. "I'll wait for you outside after school and we can head that way."

He and Shaggy then departed for their table with their food and Daria said, "What polite young men."

Jane simply made a shushing sound and indicated towards Ethan, who thankfully hadn't heard what Daria had said, clearly lost in a daze.

* * *

After lunch, Ethan had Mr. O'Neill's class, but during the walk down the halls towards it he noticed even more pointed stares and whispers and he heard the name, "Rex." And "They found him out cold near the new kid's locker." And variations thereof.

Once he entered the class however, he found that he had it not only with Daria and Jane but with Josh and Bob as well.

The only open seat left was next to Bob, so Ethan took it and glanced over at the hero from earlier.

"Sorry for everyone giving me credit for your handy work." Ethan said quietly to the Punk who grunted and replied.

"No problem, besides if it keeps those idiots from trying anything like that again then it's worth it."

But at that moment Mr. O'Neill chose to enter and soon enough began the roll call and when he got to Ethan's name at the end he did a double take and said.

"Oh it's nice to have a name with a face."

The snickering at that _faux pas_ was impressive, even by Lawndale standards.

In order to spare Ethan anymore humiliation, and inadvertently Mr. O'Neill, Daria answered in a voice that cut above the din.

"Mr. O'Neill was kind enough to give Jane, Ethan, and I a ride home from the movies after it started raining."

"At least he didn't start crying." Jane thought to herself, looking at the emotional timebomb that was their Language Arts teacher.

It took him a minute to pull himself together, but soon enough O'Neill was prattling on about the day's lesson.

"And so class, for this project you're going to be making movies, a short two or three minute exercise in living literature and we have Daria to thank for this project."

Daria muttered, "There he goes with that 'thank you' crap again."

"Before we begin creating our teams, who wants to direct?"

The class then erupted as most of the students began clamoring for a chance to do something _interesting _for once in Language Arts.

Josh quickly got up and headed towards Ethan and asked, "Do you want to do this film thing together?"

Ethan thought for a second before saying, "Sure why not, but I don't have a camera."

"Me neither." Josh admitted.

"I do." Bob answered from nowhere.

"Ok cool, this works," Ethan answered, "The three of us will create something… any ideas?"

* * *

"You remember what I told you earlier about the 'little talk' I had with Quinn?" Daria asked her friend in their private corner.

"Yup." Jane replied, still impressed at the tongue lashing that Daria had dished out to her sister after getting back home and had been reported upon to Jane in detail the morning before Ethan had arrived.

"I don't feel as though she was punished enough." Daria continued, "And I think I owe Mr. O'Neill thanks for the punishment I've just come up with."

* * *

Gym class passed largely without incident, which Ethan had found surprising at first until during a quiet moment of what had clearly become football practice that a tall, well-toned, African American student introduced himself.

"Hey, your Ethan right? I'm Mack."

"Yeah, I'm Ethan." He replied, wondering where this was going to go.

"Listen, I heard that something happened between you and Rex and I told the rest of the team to leave you alone."

"Rest of the team….?" Ethan began to ask before it clicked in his head, "You're the QB right?"

Mack laughed at that and replied, "No, no, _no!_ That's Kevin's spot; I'm the team-captain."

"I've had the dubious pleasure of Kevin's company at the movies last night." Ethan answered before they were approached by the man in question.

"Hey Mack Daddy and… Whoever you are." Kevin said by way of greeting as he stepped into speaking range.

"I've told you not to call me that." Mack said by rote, but Kevin being Kevin would call him that again in the future.

"I'm the kid you gave all those groceries to last night." Ethan said, wondering if the big idiot even remembered him from the night before. "Groceries… groceries…" Kevin said to himself before exclaiming, "Oh I remember now! You were with Daria and Jane, your Ethan right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, well you should know that there's _another _new kid in school called Ethan who everyone says is a gay Trekkie and beat up Rex before lunch."

Ethan was stunned to silence by the stupidity in that simple sentence while Mack just shook his head and quietly laughed while Kevin added, "Coach says we need to get back to it." And jogged off to join the others in tossing the old pigskin around.

* * *

The class that Ethan Yeager was looking forward to the most was Mr. DeMartino's class; the thought of being in the same room with a mentally unstable, bitter teacher with a popping eye simply _had _to be seen.

The only seat available was next to an overweight Goth chick he had already seen in a couple classes named Andrea Hebcua who was currently asleep.

On his other side was a one of the popular girls he had seen around, wearing the required uniform of skimpy top, fashionable jeans, and the latest shoes and accessories.

"Hi Ethan," the popular girl said in greeting as soon as Ethan had sat down, "I'm Brooke Tanner."

Ethan nodded in acknowledgment but said nothing else, but Brooke didn't take the hint and instead continued with, "I've heard some stuff about you and unlike other people I think it's ok if you're… you know…"

"Gay." Ethan finished for her, a bit more loudly than he intended, startling Andrea out of her pre-class nap.

"Yeah that!" Brooke said in a rush, "I have a Gay uncle and I've seen all the crap he's had to put up with and I just wanted to say… uhm…"

A voice emerged from Ethan's left, "I see Dr. Cosimio did a stellar job in fixing your nose Brooke, much better than that quack doctor you went too first."

At that Brooke Tanner went completely silent, her face beet red with embarrassment at the memory of Dr. Shar and the mess that her nose had been as a result for _months_ until the courts had squeezed enough money out of that Dr. Mengele so that her parents could afford the reconstructive surgery.

Ethan just had enough time to thank Andrea quietly when the last of the students arrived and Mr. DeMartino entered the room.

Within five minutes Ethan got his first dose of what his next few years with this teacher would be like once Kevin Thompson was called on to answer a question and then with Britney's commentary, the teacher wound up screaming in anger for two whole minutes while pulling at his hair and his eye seemingly about to burst out of the socket.

"This is _sooo_ worth the price of admission." Ethan said to himself and he elicited a laugh from Andrea.

* * *

But eventually all good things must come to an end and when the bell rang, the students went through the process of gathering their stuff, but just as Ethan was about to head towards the door he heard a quiet voice nearby.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, sir?"

Ethan turned around to look at the speaker, it was another member of the football team, he was easily the most muscular and well-built person in Lawndale High, dark skinned, clearly of Native American decent, and was wearing a blue shirt, shorts, and the latest sneakers.

"Yeah?" Ethan asked, nervous about where this was going as the others were already pouring through the door and DeMartino had been among the first to slip out.

"I just wanted to say…" the big guy then paused and had to take a very deep breath, clearly apprehensive about what he wanted to say.

It only took Ethan two seconds to figure out what was coming next but he held his silence, waiting for the jockboy to speak.

"That I think you're a braver man that I." he finished with a flushed look on his face.

"Gay?" Ethan asked, no long able to resist.

"Bi." The jock answered, "I mean I haven't done anything with a guy or nothing but…"

"It's ok… dude I understand." Ethan replied, just realizing that he didn't even know the kid's name.

"I've… I've… I've got to go, so sorry." The jock said in a sudden seizure of panic before running out.

Ethan then sighed and then slipped out, only to notice that the teacher had been waiting for him.

"HelLOW Mister YEAger, it is a PLEASure to FINALLY speak to yOU." DeMartino said by way of greeting.

Ethan nodded and then asked, "Why'd you linger?"

"BEcause I was conCERNED about what ROBert intended to do."

Ethan gave the eye-popping teacher a small smile and said, "He just had to get something off his chest."

"So I GATHered, and while I don't NORMALLY spy on the STUdents, I've HEARED some IMPRESSIVE stuff about you and I DIDN'T want to SEE you get hurt."

"Thanks." Ethan replied, genuinely touched.

"Now feel free to run off, no reason to LINGER in this HELL hole more than NESSISARY!" DeMartino said with a flourish.

Ethan took the hint and headed towards his locker to get his stuff, eager to get out of Lawndale High as well.

* * *

A little later, Ethan Yeager was walking down the sidewalks, glancing at the street signs and checking the slip of paper that Bob had given him for the directions to his house when a speeding sports car suddenly slowed down and began keeping pace with Ethan.

Ethan stopped walking and waited for whatever was to come, which turned out to be Quinn Morgendorffer stepping out of the back and saying, "Hey Ethan I need to talk to you."

"I have nothing to say to you." Ethan said in cold tones and started walking again.

That didn't stop Quinn who ran up beside and began walking next to him, the sports car began to follow them slowly as well.

"Oh my God Ethan, I'm like, so sorry for everything that happened at school. I mean I know I shouldn't have told Stacy but we needed to plan the shopping trip and I got her to _swear _secrecy but then she told Sandi and then Sandi told Tori and then she told… everyone." Quinn finished weakly.

"And now, once again, I'm just 'the gay kid with the weirdo parents', before anyone got a chance to even know me." Ethan retorted, his voice at the level of below freezing.

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen Ethan," Quinn said, her high-pitch voice was nails on a chalk board for him now, "I wanted to say all this earlier but I've had to deal my parents, Daria, and then the others at school and it took all day to salvage my popularity…."

Ethan snorted loudly and stopped walking, cutting Quinn off, "You think I give a **FUCK **about your pathetic popularity games?!"

Ethan then took in a deep breath to calm down and then added, "I wanted to come out on my own terms, not others, and all you can think about is the opinions of _idiots_ in expensive clothes."

"Quinn look at yourself, your better than them so why do you care about any of it?"

All Quinn Morgendorffer could do was stammer and stutter, unable to say anything at all.

Ethan snorted again and said, "Just what I thought." And then started walking again.

Quinn stood there, still stammering while Ethan quickly headed off towards the Sorenson's, the sports car parked on the street and the driver, a preppy guy with blond hair, stepped out and asked Quinn if she wanted him and his friends to beat him up.

"No Jeffy that would be the worst thing to do."

"It's Jamie."

"Whatever."

* * *

Bob Sorenson, as it turned out to be Bob the Punks last name, lived only two blocks away from the Yeager's new residence, so it made finding it less of a chore than it would have been, and thankfully Josh Decker had already arrived so they could get to business quickly.

Bob's room was painted black and covered in posters of punk bands ranging from the Sex Pistols to Rancid, the only thing in the room that wasn't Punk was a picture in a frame on the wall of Bob and his family, which included his mom, dad, and a nerdy looking guy next to Bob that was probably his older brother.

Bob was sitting on his bed, while Josh and Ethan were on the floor nearby, and Bob noticed that Josh found ways to inch as close to Ethan as possible without being obviously trying to get close to him.

The three of them then spent the next couple of minute's spitballing ideas and munching on some popcorn and soda that Bob had been kind enough to prep up.

"Well since you didn't like any of my ideas, what do you want to do?" Josh asked the two of them, a little off put that nothing he had suggested had been up to snuff.

Bob looked thoughtful for a moment and then his entire demeanor light up and he said, "The Zon."

"What?" Josh asked in confusion.

"What's the Zon?" Ethan asked, not having been in area that long.

"It's a grunge club on Dega St." Bob explained, "Picture crappy music, worse company, and lots of booze and drugs. We go in, record our experience there, then edit it a bit to look semi-legal, and have the assignment done."

"Sounds dangerous." Josh said nervously, having never dared go to the Zon before.

"Sounds better than my idea to record my parents at the annual Crystal Energy Conference in Oakwood." Ethan said, "Especially since this year they have the world's biggest rose quartz there and my parents won't stop talking about it."

"Ok, the Zon it is." Josh said, doing his best to stomp on the feeling apprehension that was growing in his gut.

* * *

In order to prepare for a night out at a place like the Zon, the three of them would have to make some arrangements at home prior to going.

In Bob's case, it was a simple matter of telling his parents that his homework was finished and that he was going out that night. The Sorenson's were long used to their younger son's hard partying ways and his grades hadn't been affected by it before, so they let him go.

In Josh's case, first he had to get back home to his mom's, who would arrive at home at precisely the same time every single time. Which was part and parcel to working as a time management consultant.

Then all he had to do was wait until 10'oclock for her to go to bed then just sneak out of the window and make sure that this adventure would let him get back in just before 6'oclock when his alarm clock would go off to signal the start of a new day.

In Ethan's case, normally he wouldn't have to do either one of those things; a fringe benefit of having hippie parents was that they weren't too particular about _what _or _where _he was so long as he found a way to let them know he was ok at _some point in time._

But after reading between the lines of what Quinn had said, Ethan was willing bet his last dollar that his parents had heard what had happened through the Morgendorffer grapevine and it would probably require some damage control.

* * *

"Oh thank the Goddess you're alright." Willow Yeager said as soon as her son stepped through the front door and rushed forward to give him a hug.

"Where's dad?" Ethan managed to say, being crushed by an unusually strong gripped hug.

"He had to work late and he called to say he was very sorry about that but he'll make it up to you tomorrow once we pull you out of that school." Willow answered.

"You don't have to pull me." Ethan said as a matter of fact once his mother let him go.

"What?!" Willow breathed, "I heard that you got attacked by some meat-eater monster and…"

"And another student knocked him out for it and let me take credit." Ethan finished for her, stunning his mother into a momentary silence.

Ethan took full advantage and plowed on, "While there have been a lot of nasty whispers, there have also been kids there who… stood up for me." He said the last with some of the amazement that he still felt from the way the day played out.

Willow's demeanor shifted for worry and concern to beaming delight, though she couldn't resist an admonition against taking credit for violence, but it was so lighthearted that Ethan could tell that she was just saying it out of habit.

"And I've made some… friends." Ethan added with even more amazement, "And I'm going to meet some of them tonight, I'll be back whenever."

"Ok," Willow said, feeling even more delight than before, "Just make sure to take care of yourself Ethan."

"I always do."

* * *

By the time ten thirty rolled around, the trio had just arrived at the Zon at the start of what Bob called 'the early hour crowd'.

"They tend to be the quieter types, in that they mostly just drink and fight and listen to the tunes."

"What's the rougher crowd like?" Josh asked.

"They get high as kites and then drink and fight and listen to the tunes." Bob answered simply.

Josh laughed for a minute before realizing that his punk friend wasn't kidding one bit.

The Zon was easily the dirtiest place that Ethan had ever been too, and he was regretting wearing sandals rather than actual shoes.

The camera that was going to document their journey into the heartland of madness was in a discreet position in a small backpack that Bob had slung over his shoulder, his expert handling of the camera in this manner had made both Ethan and Josh suspect that he had done this sort of thing before but neither had the nerve to ask him about it.

Thankfully for their eardrums, the current band playing, the NailClippers, finished their set to a mix of boos and a few cheers from the members of the crowd already three sheets to the wind.

"Are all the bands this bad?" Josh asked during the brief moment of quiet while the NailClippers left the stage so the next band could come on next.

"No," Bob said in mock seriousness, "Most are worse."

"I wonder who is going to try to destroy all that is music next." Josh muttered to himself before hearing Ethan breath the word, "Trent."

* * *

"Hello, we're Mystik Spiral." Trent Lane said into the microphone in his lazy voice, "But we might change our name."  
Then without further ado, the band broke out into the song, "Ow! My Face", the best that could be said of it was that Trent did have a nice voice and that was about it.

The awfulness of the song was enough to shake Ethan out of his stupor and bring him back to the smoke filled reality he was in.

"Oh… That's Trent Lane; I met his sister, Jane. But I guess you both knew that already." Ethan said in a rush, his face flush.

"Speaking of Jane," Bob said, trying to keep Josh's attention deflected away from this near-disaster and pointed out two familiar figures in the crowd. Jane Lane and Daria Morgendorffer standing close together and clearly snarking about… Everything going on around them.

As the three of them walked up behind the girls, the band finished their song and everyone in the club got to hear Jane yell, "GET, GET BURGER!" Which was followed by an awkward silence, but thankfully the band started playing again.

"Hey Daria, Janey." Ethan said in greeting from behind the two girls and after some polite hellos and idle chit-chat, Jane mentioned that the band was going out for burgers and she was going to invite Daria along.

"What?!" Daria said in shocked at that statement.

"Yeah, it's a band tradition, now please don't act like a complete idiot in front of my brother."

"Define complete."

Then the five of them noticed that the band had finished their set and that Trent was headed their way.

Daria turned beet red right in front of them and looked like she was about to hyperventilate, then muttered something about 'bathroom' before running off.

"What was that…?" Josh began to say before noticing the way Ethan was following Trent's every move and he started to turn red himself.

"Come on Ethan." He managed to spit out without giving away any emotion and reached for Ethan's arm, "We need to talk, outside."

* * *

"What was that about?" Ethan asked, clearly annoyed at being dragged off.

"You that's what it's about," Josh snapped back, "Did you see yourself in there, practically drooling over Tim or whatever his name."

"So, he's cute and nice to look at." Ethan answered, "But that doesn't mean I expect him to take me to Vermont, marry me, and then move in together."

Josh fell into a sullen silence at that that lasted for a long time before Ethan managed to gather himself up enough to ask.

"What is this really about Josh?" "I… I like you Ethan." He managed to stammer, "And… Oh god I don't know how to ask this, I've never done this before."

"Then start by just saying it."

"I… I want to go out with you." Josh said with his face an even redder shade than Daria's.

"I do too Josh," Ethan answered, "And I've never gone out with a guy either, but I'm willing if you are."

"Yes, yes I am."

Ethan offered Josh his hand and after a moment's hesitation, Josh took Ethan's hand into his own.

"So seeing as we are already here and willing I suggest that we use the rest of this night as our first date." Ethan said quietly but with his face slowly forming a warm smile that was quickly matched with one from Josh.

"I want to go slow for now." Josh said in much calmer, happier tones than before, "And see where this goes."

Ethan simply answered this with an even bigger smile and lead Josh back into the Zon, but neither of them noticed that Bob had slipped out and had been waiting at the entrance to make sure they'd be ok, not even he realized that the camera had been rolling the entire time, capturing all of it.

* * *

The next day at school was a marked improvement over the first, since now Ethan had a sense of how things would work. The best thing about first period was that he got to sit next to Josh, who still seemed in a daze of the night of grooving that they had shared at the Zon to the worst music ever created by man.

Even Ms. Barch's random man-hating rants were bearable now, especially since they weren't directed at either one of them that day.

The rest of the day passed by in the blur for Ethan, until they came to Mr. O'Neill's class which that day would be in the AV Room so the students could edit their videos.

For once, his extreme touchy feely attitude was helpful since he had found enough TV's and equipment for each of the groups to work with; one benefit of Mrs. Li's obsession with surveillance was that she had a ton of unused sophisticated toys to play with.

Mr. O'Neill had even set up booths so that each group could work in peace, "Though you should work on a low volume so you don't disturb the creative processes of the other groups." He had prattled.

"So before I show you guys the video you should know something." Bob said quietly.

"What?" Josh asked.

"When you guys were outside, I followed you to keep an eye out, since it's not a good place to be when you're distracted." He added in a rush when both boys began to give him dark looks.

"Well I checked the footage this morning before school and the camera apparently was still on and it recorded… everything."

There was a long moment of silence before Josh broke it by saying, "Then we use it."

"What?!" Ethan and Bob said in shock.

"We use the footage." Josh said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Are you sure?" Ethan asked, deeply concerned about what Josh was proposing.

"Yes." Josh said with conviction, "My mom knows I'm gay, my best friends do as well, and you do too. So why hide it anymore?"

"Well with courage like that who am I to say no?" Ethan asked rhetorically, and Bob simply smiled and said, "Ok then, we use it."

Then there was a commotion as Daria suddenly rushed out of the room, her face and hands blooming red splotches.

* * *

After Mr. O'Neill's class, the rest of the day passed without incident, though Ethan did have some nagging worries about Daria and the way she just upped and bolted out of class, and why was she so _red_?

However when he asked Jane about it all she said was, "Daria went to the Nurses' office, it looked like she had a reaction to something. I don't know if she's allergic to anything but other than that she seemed ok, I guess they must have sent her home but I'll call just in case."

But after the end of his last class and the last of DeMartino's screams, Ethan went into full bolt mode in order to get out of Lawndale High, and waiting outside the entrance near a small tree labeled the 'Tommy Sherman Memorial Tree' was Josh.

"So we hit the Zon for a while and then… my place?

"Yeah." Josh said in husky tones, "My Mom is off at some conference and won't be back until Friday."

"I told her that I'm staying at a friend's house… I didn't say _what kind _of friend it was." Josh finished with an ironic laugh that was answered with a happy leer from Ethan.

* * *

Without the hindering effect of being on candid camera, the Zon was a lot of fun once you were drinking and taking in the effects of various semi-legal and illegal substances.

And since Josh hadn't had much experience with either one, Ethan was more than willing to make up the lack.

"Are you sure this is ok?" Josh asked, eyeing the joint in his fingers.

"Yeah it's cool; I grow my own for personal use." Ethan answered quietly in the skanky bathroom stall they were sharing. "I don't ever deal, but I'm willing to share with people I truly like and trust."

At that confession, Josh felt almost obliged to take his first toke, which he did and then coughed back up but the second, third, and the others after went down much better.

Everything started to blur and spin together, memory became hazy flashes for the two of them, Ethan could remember Josh flagging a cab, unlocking the door to his house, then falling into his bed with Josh right on top of him, and then the taste of his tongue in his mouth, and then things became clearer and Ethan asked a single question.

"Are you sure?"

"_Yessss…"_

* * *

In the master bedroom of the Yeager residence, Willow woke to strange sounds, at first frightened she started to rise out of bed until she recognized one of the moans as belonging to Ethan.

At that she simply smiled and turned on a large fan, she didn't need it for the cool air though but the white noise.

The walls were paper thin and Coyote could sleep through an earthquake, but Willow Yeager, already in her early 40s had discovered that sleep was more difficult for her now and she really needed sleep.

* * *

Ethan felt something shaking his shoulder, in the middle of the best dream that he had ever had, but alas despite his best efforts he was forced to consciousness.

"Uhhh… Wha?" Ethan muttered until his vision came back and focused on the figure of a shirtless Josh standing over him.

"Mornin," Josh said, as radiant as only a morning person could be, "As cute as you looked asleep it's time for you to shower and get dressed, we have school… dammit!"

Mornings were not Ethan's best time, but that dammit managed to bring a smile to his face, which then faded as some of what they had done last night came back to him.

"Josh…" he said weakly, "Did we…?"

"Yeah Ethan, we did." Josh answered, a small and warm smile forming on his face.

"So much for slow, huh?" Ethan said as he got out of bed.

"You could say that…" Josh said with his grin growing even bigger before Ethan figured out that he had been naked under the sheets.

For a jarring panicked moment Ethan tried to grab the bedding before realizing that they had both seen everything anyway so the point of covering was long dead.

"I suggest you hurry E, your mom is making tofu bacon for breakfast and I'm sure you don't want to miss out."

* * *

After breakfast, and enjoying Josh's mixed reaction to the tofu flavored bacon that his mother had served. "Don't worry, we'll have some _real _meat at Cluster Burger later." Ethan promised. The pair headed off to another day at Lawndale High.

But as soon as they got within a few yards distance, they were flagged down by Jane Lane, who ran up to them and said, "Ok Ethan you are going to have to meet me in the AV room before first period."

"Why?" both Ethan and Josh asked.

"Trust me, this is worth it."

"What about Daria?" Ethan asked, not having been updated on anything due to the events of the night before and his parents admitting that they hadn't been called.

"Oh, she had to go to the hospital for some tests, I went and saw her and they released her this morning. Apparently it was some sort of reaction caused by high levels of stress and anxiety. "

"Ok, cool, so she'll be back in one piece right?" Ethan said.

"As long as those pieces stay away from Zon for a while then yeah, she should be fine." Jane answered cryptically.

* * *

"Holy shit!" Josh exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock, "Did Quinn Morgendorffer really _say _all that?!"

"Yeah," Jane answered in reply, still stunned herself, "This was the subject me and Daria chose for the movie, a day in the life of a popular teen, we were going to expose the _real _Quinn Morgendorffer for the whole school to see."

"And except for the last bit, the rest of it looked like the Quinn I know and view with contempt." Ethan snorted.

"True," Jane stated, "However she hinted off camera that you said some stuff to her, plus seeing Daria in the hospital seems to have caused her two brain cells to finally rub together."

"And then when she left to 'clear her head', those are her words by the way, I followed her and I realized I still had the camera from the film project with me so I had it out and decided to record what I thought would be a meltdown."

"And it was," Ethan answered, "Just not the one I expected."

"I'm going to skip science and add this last bit to the film me and Daria put together, it won't be the punishment Quinn's deserves, but _Sandi_ is sure in for a surprise."

* * *

The time it took to reach Mr. O'Neill's class seemed to drag on forever, the school in the meanwhile was rocked by the news that Quinn Morgendorffer had gotten into a _colossal _argument with Sandi Griffin and had then left the Fashion Club.

The school's popular and semi-popular girls were taking sides, catty remarks were already being made, rumors were spreading like the plague, and so far no actual fights had broken out.

Note the key phrase, so far.

"But give it another couple of hours and it will happen." Brooke Tanner warned Ethan during the free period before gym.

"No one's sure what caused it, but Sandi and Quinn are no long even pretending to be friends, they are almost within an inch of _killing _each other and five people have told me, like, nine different stories and I don't know what's going on!"

"Don't worry Brooke," Ethan had said very quietly, "Things will come to the surface soon enough."

* * *

The bizarre film that Jodie, Mack, Kevin, and Britney had made about the supermarket strike had ended with Kevin being attacked by an angry mob with Britney and her newly dyed greyish-black hair hot on their trail ended with a 'The End (But the Struggle Goes On!)'

"Wow Jodie! Where did you learn to juggle symbolism like that?" Mr. O'Neill gushed once the lights came back on.

"Um… I worked with storyboards, I think it helped." Jodie answered, clearing making up a line of BS on the spot.

Luckily for her it worked since Mr. O'Neill moved on with.

"And now a piece by, Josh Decker, Bob Sorenson, and Ethan Yeager, called 'A Night of Zon'.

The lights were turned out and the film began, first with an establishing shot of the Zon, then some shots of the early crowd, some bobbing to the music, others drinking, then the NailClippers left stage and were replaced with Mystik Spiral.

Ethan's breathed word of 'Trent' echoed in the film, then the band began playing, Ethan shook himself out of a stupor, then Jane was yelling 'GET, GET BURGER!' and then explaining about the burgers.

Then Josh dragged Ethan off.

Then the entire conversation outside the doors of Zon played in Mr. O'Neill's classroom without any editing.

The room was completely silent except for the film.

Then the last shot was of Josh and Ethan heading back to the Zon holding hands. The screen went back except for a 'Fin'.

The lights came back on and for a long moment no one said a word, then Britney said in a breathy voice, "That is _sooo_ romantic…"

Then Josh realized that during the film he had reached across the aisle and was hold Ethan's hand in a firm grip, which was being returned back to him.

* * *

It took Mr. O'Neill five whole minutes to stop crying, even after everyone had stopped applauding. "So class," the teacher finally managed to wheeze, "The last film is a piece by Jane Lane and Daria Morgendorffer, the subject… is a day in the life of Quinn Morgendorffer."

The lights dimmed, and half the students there expected to be bored, especially after what they had just seen…

* * *

At first the film just seemed to be an expose on the vapid, a lot of images of Quinn primping, posing, and talking at great length… about herself.

Some of the students began to node off.

Then they reached the guerilla footage that Jane had added in at the last minute.

* * *

The four members of the Fashion Club were at the mall and Sandi was saying, "…Gee Quinn it's sooo nice of you to take tiiiime out of your busssy schedule to meet with us."

"Oh Sandi you know I had that prior arraignment at the hospital to meet with my sis…. Cousin, _distant_ cousin!"

The conversation then continued as such for a minute before Sandi said this catty remark.

"And sooo I told Torieeee that if cerrrtain people can't tell the difffference between gays and straights, then they clearrrly need help."

Quinn seemed off-put by this, as did Stacy oddly enough; Tiffany was staring at her reflection in a piece of brushed metal that was wrapped around a pillar.

"Sandi…" Quinn began apprehensively, "You know that not everyone acts in a certain manner that makes it obvious that they are one way or the other. I mean there are like, all kinds of personality types and stuff for all types of people so…"

"Gee Quinn." Sandi interrupted, "I didn't realize that you were soooo sensitive to these sorts of thiiings, it's almost like you made some horrible mistake or something…"

"Sandi." Quinn said, her tone snappish, catching Sandi off guard, "If you're referring to what I _think _you're referring to…"

"And what _am _I referring to Quinn?"

"The…" Quinn began before trailing off, her nerve failing her, a silence fell that Quinn then managed to break with. "The thing where I told Stacy about Ethan and then she told you and then you just _had _to tell Tori Jericho who you of all people should know would tell _everyone."_

"But that's what you wanted wasn't it? To try and embarrass me and embarrass someone whom you never met before, for your own gain."

Then Sandi seemingly tried to backpedal and be aggressive at the same time before the two girls were in each other's faces, both yelling at each other, the words quickly incoherent.

Stacy was in the background hyperventilating, Tiffany was still starring at her reflection, oblivious to the world around her.

"FINE YOU SELF-CENTERED EGO MONSTER!" Quinn finally roared, "I'M LEAVING THE FASHION CLUB AND I'M GOING TO MAKE MY OWN GROUP AND SO HELP ME I WILL BRING YOU DOWN!"

And with that Quinn stormed off, Stacy fell into a dead faint, and Tiffany finally noticed that something had changed and went, "Diiiid sommmmethiiiing haaaaapennnn?"

The film went to black.

The Lights came on.

Then Quinn Morgendorffer fell through the slightly open door where she had been spying and fell flat on her face, she got up and stared at the room full of silent faces.

Then with the exception of Ethan, Josh, and Bob the room erupted into applause.

* * *

Once Mr. O'Neill's class had dispersed, it didn't take long for word to spread of the two films that now lived in infamy.

"That new guy is dating _Josh Decker!"_

"Sandi was always such a b-i-t-c-h!"

"Good for Quinn!"

"I mean it's so _cool _that Lawndale is so, diverse now and stuff!"

"Quinn rules!"

Admist all these whispers, Ethan and Josh walked, hand in hand through the halls of Lawndale, while there were some dirty looks, they were hidden and few compared to the ones of admiration and curiosity from so many others.

And flanking them was Jane Lane, Bob Sorenson, Andrea Hubeca, Brooke Tanner, and a couple of other supporters that Ethan didn't recognize.

But despite his newfound status as a social butterfly, the normally misanthrope Ethan Yeager couldn't come close to Quinn's new crowd.

Every single popular and semi-popular girl that wasn't Sandi Griffin, or following Ethan and Josh at the moment, was around her, vying for attention, asking a million questions, yet the big one was, 'What new group?"

"I don't have a name for it yet." Quinn said airily, "But it will be a club for girls that have style or want to be stylish, since fashion is nice and all, but it only lasts so long. Style now, that lasts, like, forever, and I want to create something that can truly be eternal."

Jane Lane heard this and said, "I wish Daria was here for a snarky comment about all this."

Ethan added quietly, "You tried to bring Quinn down, instead she's now more popular than ever."

Josh then said, taking his snark out for a test-drive, "Yeah but look the bright side." And pointed at the figure of Sandi Griffin, literally running down the halls towards the exit.

"Meh you win some you lose some." Jane said, with only a small amount of disappointment.

"Yeah…" Ethan said quietly, "Besides, Daria will be back soon and besides, I found what was really important already." Then he gave Josh's hand a tight squeeze.

"Yeah," Josh said in reply, "I think we've both got something better out of this than Quinn ever will."

And hearing that, Jane Lane, Andrea Hebuca, and Brooke Tanner smiled, and then the three of them realized that the other two were grinning also.

Then the trio kept doing it anyway.

**THE END**

* * *

_Notes: Some lines taken from 'Monster' and 'Ill', Rex Attor is based off the backgrounder 'Red Lion' at the suggestion of ST91._


	2. Chapter 2: Ye Olde Madness

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 2 Ye Olde Madness**

"Well my name means 'solid' or 'enduring' in Hebrew," Ethan read off the slip of paper that Mr. O'Neill had given him, "What's yours?"

"Yahweh is Salvation." Josh answered in reply.

"I have to admit that that being 'bright fame' is kinda cool." Bob answered from behind the happy couple.

From nearby they could hear Jane laugh at being a 'Sweet Girl' and then laugh harder when Daria said her name meant 'to possess good'.

Brittany was pouting that her name ultimately came from a region of France called Brittany, which simply meant 'Little Britain'. Then she took her frustration out on Kevin by hitting him when he started bragging that his name meant 'handsome birth."

Mr. O'Neill in the meanwhile was saying, "… and so I thought that it would be good for everyone to learn what their names mean, so I went online and found a baby name website…"

Thankfully for the rest of the class he was cut off by Ms. Li making a public announcement over the PA system.

"Attention students of Laaaaawndale Hiiiiigh!"

"Damn, it's those voices again." Jane quipped from the back, making Ethan chuckle.

"The library will be closed until further notice."

"Gee, there's goes the only place where people can go to be alone." Brittany said, disappointed that her and Kevey's emergency make-out place at school was gone, having already forgotten being trapped in the damm building when the roof collapsed around them the night before.

"Well there's always the bathroom." Daria said.

"Ewww!" Kevin and Brittany moaned and then a second later both of them had thoughtful looks on their faces.

In the meanwhile Ms. Li continued on with, "To raise money for a new library, the school will be hosting a Medieval Faire, simulating life in the Middle Ages."

"Volunteers are desperately needed; those who refused to volunteer must purchase a ticket for 10 dollars or voluntarily face suspension. Have a nice day."

"You know if she just hawked some of the unused security equipment she'd have enough money for _two _new libraries." Ethan said just loudly enough for the entire room to hear him.

"But that's _crazy _talk," Daria added, cutting into the silence, "Because without that new polygraph machine how would she sniff out the Body Snatchers?"

"We have Body Snakes?!" Kevin asked in panic.

Brittany did everyone a favor by hitting him.

* * *

Later that day, just as Ethan opened the front door at home, he was greeted by an unexpected sight, his parents dressed up as a Nun and an Abbot.

"Costume party?" Ethan asked in monotone.

"Oh no child," Willow answered, "Your school is holding a Renaissance Faire and we're going to sell some of our new Hemp Crystal Necklaces and some other products, you know as a means to hook new customers in a different setting."

"Old Jake set the whole thing up for us," Ethan's father, Coyote added, smoothing out some wrinkles on the rented robes, "He said that it will show people that Yeager Hemp Products is a legitimate business that can both help the material and spiritual needs of the community."

Ethan glanced down on the coffee table where some of the new necklaces were piled up, "Let me guess, you got the crystals at that convention in Oakwood?"

"That's right Ethan," Coyote said, beaming with pride, "And we're going to have some literature printed up for the customers so they can get the right necklace to go with their auras."

Ethan, long being used to his parents strange beliefs kept his skepticism to himself and made appreciative words that were interrupted by the doorbell.

"I'll get it." Willow said, being closer to the door than the others.

Ethan began to help his dad gather up the sample necklaces while his mother answered the door, but he stopped as soon as he heard the voice on the other side.

"Hi Robert." Ethan Yeager said while turning around, not realizing that he was holding an intricately woven hemp necklace with black quartz crystals.

"Hey Ethan." The tall, Navajo jock answered in his slow voice, "Sorry if I came at a bad time but…" he then trailed off for a bit.

"Did you want to talk?" Ethan supplied for him.

"Yeah." Robert answered sheepishly.

"Well then come on in." Willow said, bidding him in, and then beamed with delight when he politely answered "Thank you ma'am."

* * *

"I'm sorry I ran out on you like that," Robert said quietly, his voice thick with trepidation, "And that I avoided you for days afterward."

"It's ok big guy." Ethan answered in reply, the two of them were seated on the living room couch, while his parents had already discreetly left for the kitchen, the less said about the 60's retro décor mixed with modern appliances, the better.

"It's just… I'm scared." Robert said, unable to articulate a more complex answer than that.

"It's ok to be scared," Ethan answered quietly, "But you're not alone in this and you can talk to me, no one is going to rat you out here."

"Thank you." Robert answered his voice thick with gratefulness.

"I just… I don't what to do now." He added.

"Well I'm no expert," Ethan answered carefully, "But I can say with full confidence that being Bisexual doesn't change who you are, you are still you, Robert."

"Now you said you wanted to talk, right?"

Robert smiled at that and began talking, and then a little while later, Josh Decker quietly came into the Yeager home with the spare house key Ethan had given him and saw an interesting sight, Robert Tavare, the Offensive Lineman for the Lawndale Lions was here, giving his boyfriend a giant, crushing hug.

"Did I miss the party?" Josh asked, shocking them both.

Robert stepped away like he had been zapped by lighting until he saw that it was just Josh and relaxed.

"Nah man," Ethan answered, "Robert just had something he wanted to get off his chest."

"Did you tell him?" Robert asked very quietly.

"Nope." Ethan answered again.

"Tell me what?" Josh asked, his curiosity piqued.

Robert seemed to struggle with himself for a minute before making Josh the second person he had ever told his sexual orientation to.

"Oh." Josh breathed, for a moment stunned by the unexpected revelation.

Then Josh sat down on the couch with the other two guys and then gave Robert some words of support.

"Thank you Josh," Robert answered, always minding his manners, "I have to say that you two are braver than I have ever been."

"You have been brave Robert." Ethan answered, giving Robert's shoulder a supportive squeeze, feeling the impressive muscle and for a moment feeling… excited.

Then he let go quickly before that train of thought got rolling on the tracks and added, "It takes a lot of courage to talk to people about something that not everyone likes."

"But once you start, it becomes easier and it gets better." Josh added as well.

Robert gave them both a sheepish, happy grin, feeling better than he had ever been in ages.

"And if you guys don't mind I'd like to ask a small favor."

"What's that?" Ethan asked.

"I've wanted to go this… club I heard about in city, for teens like us. But I don't' want to go alone…"

"Sure Robert, we'll go with you." Josh said before Ethan could get a word in edge-wise.

"Great!" Robert exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear, "Thanks guys!"

Ethan swallowed his dark thoughts, since he hated the kind of music that was usually played at gay clubs and simply answered, "No problem."

He didn't want to disappoint either one of them.

Dammit!

* * *

"I can hear the 'thud-thud-thoom' from here and it's already giving me a headache." Ethan complained quietly to Josh while the trio walked the block away from where Robert had parked his car to the club.

"Try to focus on why we're here," Josh replied in a whisper next to Ethan's ear, "Or if that doesn't help just focus on me."

Ethan couldn't help but grin at that as they rounded the corner and got his first look at 'The Liquid', a teen's only nightclub that catered to those outside of the hetero-norm.

The outside building was just that, an outside building with the usual gimmicks of a nightclub exterior, complete with line and bouncer, but after only half-an-hour of waiting and paying the cover charge, they were in.

Inside were all the features of a trendy nightspot for happenin' teens, Ethan felt instant revulsion, but he hid it with a grimace, gripped Josh's hand and followed in Robert's wake.

* * *

After about an hour, the music had become tolerable, it would have been ok if they served alcohol in this place, but alas being a 'Teen Club', such things weren't available at the 'bar', though the usual drug pushers with questionable product were plying their trade.

Ethan had warned the other members of the trio to avoid them if possible, and if not then at the least not to consume anything they offered.

When it came to drugs Ethan believed in knowing the source, and staying in the kiddie pool of pot and booze.

Dancing helped, in fact it felt damm good, and for once Ethan was wearing actual shoes in lieu of sandals, so there was a lot more happening for him than just the shuffle thing he usually did.

"I love this!" Josh said in a loud voice to be heard over the music.

"I know, this fucking rules." Ethan said back to his dancing partner on the dance floor, the flashing lights, the sounds, the feeling of grooving against so many people in such a tight space…

"This was worth putting up with crappy Pop Dance music." was Ethan's most coherent thought on the subject at the moment.

And every now and then Ethan glanced to his left and could see the swaying figure of Robert dance (badly) with some guy that had started hitting on him at some point.

Ethan couldn't remember what point it had been though, but it didn't matter so long as the big guy was having fun.

But after an undetermined amount of time, Ethan and Josh both felt thirsty and tired and headed towards the dry bar and bought the overpriced bottles of water for 'proper hydration'.

"Hey have you seen Robert?" Ethan asked Josh before taking another swig of water.

"Umm… I think he went to the bathroom… Oh there he is!" and pointed at the figure heading towards them.

Robert took a seat next to Josh, grinning an impressive grin and said, "This has been so much fun guys, thanks again!"

"Hey what happened to that guy?" Ethan asked out of curiosity.

At that, Robert's grin faltered and he said sheepishly and slightly ashamed, "Well we went to the bathroom and we…. Made out. But when he wanted to go further… I…. I wasn't ready."

"I asked him for his number." Robert added hurriedly, "But he said some mean things and just left."

"Oh I'm sorry Big Guy." Ethan said, feeling terrible now that he had brought it up.

Josh gave Robert a hug and asked him if he wanted to leave.

"But aren't you guys having fun?" Robert asked with concern.

"Yeah," Ethan conceded, "But we can have fun where the people aren't mean."

Robert's smile came back and everything was right with the world.

* * *

The drive back to Lawndale felt longer than the drive _towards _the city had felt, but the timing was the same.

"Or so the Laws of Physics tell us." Ethan thought to himself as they finally pulled up in front of Josh Decker's house.

The official story for Mrs. Decker's ears was that Ethan was staying the night and Robert was a friend of his, an unofficial insurance policy against any 'hanky panky'.

Josh's mother was a liberal, but she wasn't _that _liberal, but since she was already in bed by the time they got back and knew next to nothing about Robert Tavare.

So within a few minutes after they got back, all three were in Josh's room and the window was open to let the smoke out.

"Don't you have to do… drug tests on the… team?" Josh managed to ask, Ethan's special blend of herbs already kicking in.

"Yeah… But the Coach always screws with them so they come out clean." Robert answered in reply.

"Jeze, I knew Laaaawndaaaale Hiiiigh was corrupt but… wow!" Ethan said in fake shock and in a devastating impersonation of Ms. Li.

The three of them shared as quiet a laugh as they could and then spent the next hour winding down before getting some much needed sleep.

They had school the next day.

* * *

Lawndale High was abuzz with preparations for the Medieval Faire, Ms. Li had _graciously _excuse the students from actual class work but they still had to follow their regular schedules and help the teachers with setting everything up.

Ethan had an unusually good time in Science, advising Ms. Barch on tarot card readings while she had the rest of the guys (minus Josh of course) doing prep work for her tent, the girls got to lounge.

"You know Ethan," Ms. Barch said very quietly in case any other… **MEN** heard her, "I find openly gay men to be tolerable, at least **THEY** wouldn't trick you into wasting **22 YEARS** of your life on a lie that they could just… **WALK AWAY FROM!**"

Ethan just said some polite words to this, thankful that she put him and Josh in a category outside of the torture fest she was fond of putting the other male students through.

Gym was spent setting up the stage for the play that Mr. O'Neill was going to host on the Canterbury Tales, Art was spent working on various decorations, economics was also spent on heavy labor for the faire.

But one of the things causing buzz besides the Medieval Faire, were various notices that had been put about the school in stylish type, print and paper.

"Well you have to admit that when Quinn says she's going to do something, she actually does it." Daria said with admiration mixed with annoyance.

"Yeah… It's like saying that when Genghis Khan is going to sack a city, he's sacks a city!" Jane added as she read one of them. The official proclamation that the brand-spanking new **Style Girls Club **was officially the new elite popular girl's clique in Lawndale High, and by implication everyone else was a loser.

"Speak of the Devil." Daria muttered as Quinn held pride of place as she and her new gaggle walked the halls.

There were a grand total of six members, Quinn Morgendorffer, the 'Queen of Style', and flanking her was Tiffany Blum-Deckler, Stacy Rowe, then behind them were Tori Jericho, Brooke Tanner, and trailing them was an African American girl wearing an orange dress named Rene Glass.

Daria caught sight of Sandi Griffin moving very quickly in the opposite direction from the Style Girls Club when she caught sight of them.

She had been doing that a lot lately.

* * *

Lunch had become an interesting affair for Daria and Jane, since they normally preferred to sit by themselves.

However with Ethan as a friend, he brought Josh along as a matter of course, which brought his friends Shaggy and Kelly as well.

Then to make matters more crowded for the duo misanthropes, since Ethan Yeager's pretty public debut, several other students liked to come over for a quick visit.

"I don't mind Bob and his two girlfriends Angel and Burnout," Daria said in low tones after those three left after chatting with Ethan for a few minutes, "But dealing with some of these other brain dead people is just…. Ugh!"

"Oh cheer up Daria," Jane answered, "When you're off at Grove Hills none of this will be your problem."

"It's just a visit," Daria replied, "My parents bribed me two hundred bucks to do it and if half of what I hear is true then I doubt I'll be visiting for very long."

"Oh sure you say that now, but what will you say when they install the brainwashing implants?"

"All your base belong to us?"

The chat about Grove Hills drew people's attention.

"So it's true then," Kelly asked, brushing a strand of her red hair out of her eyes, "You _did _get the invite along with Jodie!"

"Yup," Daria answered, "And it ensures that I'll miss Ms. Li's celebration of the era of plagues and literal unwashed masses."

"At least you'll be able to see Quinn make a fool of herself auditioning for the play." Josh added with a grin.

"What?!" Everyone else asked in shock.

"I saw the sign-up sheet just before I came to lunch," Josh answered in reply, "Quinn's name was on it along with quite a few other would-be actors of the stage."

"Oh this oughta be good." Jane said with a laugh.

Ethan smiled to himself and thought, "I've _got _to see this!"

* * *

The auditions for the Lawndale Drama Club production of 'The Knight's Tale' were well underway after classes had ended for the day. As Daria, Jane, and Ethan entered the school's auditorium, they could hear familiar voices reciting lines.

"Quinn's already here with the Style Squad." Daria said, taking note of Quinn in the center of her new coven, going over the lines of Emily.

"Is that Upchuck?" Ethan asked, pointing to a nerdy, scrawny, red-headed guy, who was inching his way over towards the Style Girls Club.

"Yup, that is Charles Ruttheimer III," Jane answered, the disgust caked heavily on every word, "I'm surprised you didn't recognize him."

"He hasn't interacted with me much."

"Well since you're not of the female persuasion I guess that's not shocking."

"Define 'persuasion'" Ethan teased.

"Oh this should be good." Daria said as Upchuck was called to audition along with a cheerleader named Angie.

Within a few seconds after doing their lines, Upchuck tried to hug her and Angie struggled to get away and wound up fall on the floor.

"Why fight it honey? We're man and wife now." Upchuck leer in his sleazy faux James Bond voice.

"Keep dreaming you creep!" Angie snapped while she rose to her feet and then took full advantage of Charles's leering position to knee him in the groin.

"Nice." Ethan said to himself with Upchuck them fell to the floor, crying, and hold himself all at the same time.

Then Brittany and Kevin took the stage and wound up making out after doing the kiss, forcing Mr. O'Neill to intervene, and then he asked Kevin to stay on stage.

"Oh God." Daria said, "You don't think…"

"Yes I do." Ethan said quietly.

Meanwhile the teacher called out for the next student to audition, Quinn Morgendorffer.

Brittany's "Eep!" at the sight of her boyfriend with the most popular girl in school echoed across the auditorium.

Meanwhile, sitting in the far back where no one could see her, Sandi Griffin smiled to herself and thought, "Here's an opening."

* * *

"Ohhhh Brittany," Sandi Griffin said in a soothing voice while hugging the crying girl, "It's going to be alright."

"Bu… But I didn't get the part!" Brittany squeaked in between her tears, "And now my Kevey is…. Performing with…" She then started sobbing again.

Sandi then held her tighter, and said some more soothing words until the cheerleader was calmed down enough for phase one of her little plan.

"You know…" Sandi said quietly and knowingly, "I mean I diiid hear all about how Quinn tried to take Kevin from you… If you want to make _surrre _that it won't, like, happen, I do happen to have a little something in my purse."

Then while Brittany began to look at the least-popular-popular girl at Lawndale High with hope in her eyes, Sandi made a big show of digging in her purse before pulling out a bottle filled with blue pills.

"I got these from a friend," Sandi explained, "Just slip these to Kevin and he'll be so distracted that he won't be thinking about the play at all when it's time for the faire."

While Brittany began thanking Sandi profusely, the girl being thanked sighed in relief that having to both talk to and bribe Upchuck into giving her his supply of Viagra had paid off.

"Now to ask Mr. O'Neill about volunteering to help set up the stage for the play." Sandi thought to herself after Brittany left.

Granted she would be breaking her mother's rule about volunteerism, as in don't do it at all, if she explained the reasons behind this display of helping the public, Sandi was certain that her mother would understand.

"After all, it's like I'm just following in her footsteps," Sandi thought to herself while approaching Mr. O'Neill, "And I need to do what it takes to make things right."

"Quinn Morgendorffer must be destroyed."

* * *

Meanwhile, the new Style Girls Club was at their (new) favorite hangout, a trendy café called Trendee's for hip happening teens with lots of cash.

"And so according to all the new data I've gathered it's now official," Tori Jericho, a beautiful cold blond bombshell explained while handing out copies of her new lists, "Sandi Griffin is the least popular, popular girl in school and at the rate her popularity is falling, she will soon be officially _unpopular!"_

"Oh that's too, too bad," Quinn, the new Queen of Style said in fake concern, "Oh well… But what's this shift towards the bottom of the list?"

"Oh that," Tori said quietly, "Well since Ethan Yeager and Josh Decker became an official item, they've become quite popular with a lot of people, well not _everyone, _but enough that those two weird girls that Ethan's friends with have moved up in the ranks a bit, so I took that into account."

"Ah…" Quinn breathed, "But I see that Upchuck is still the least popular person ever."

"Yup." Tori said and all the other girls nodded in agreement, "In that respect, the hierarchy hasn't changed and never will."

"But why is Robert Tavare hanging out with Ethan and Josh?" Rene Glass asked, noting a special mention of this in the footnotes.

"I'm…" Tori paused for a moment while checking her notes, "I'm not sure, it's still under investigation."

* * *

Later that night, while Daria Morgendorffer went over her suitcase one last time, Jodie Landon listened to her parents brag about Grove Hills _again_, Josh Decker finished his Math homework, Ethan Yeager helped his parents at their store with some of the items to be sold at the faire, Jane Lane slept, Quinn Morgendorffer worked on her lines, Sandi Griffin bragged to her mother about her plan to destroy Quinn, Robert Tavare struggled to understand some of his history homework, and Kevin Thompson was already feeling the effects of that weird milkshake that Brittany had given him.

Rex Attor, one of the people who still glared daggers at Ethan Yeager and Josh Decker lay in bed, feeling a mixture of satisfaction, shame, and personal disgust at the sexual fantasy he had just indulged in.

"I thought I had gotten this under control, fuck!" Rex said to himself.

"It's disgusting! But why is it so… hot?"

And once more the images came, of Ethan Yeager… His beautiful brown locks, his baby blue eyes, his tight body…

Rex hated himself as he started to feel good again… The hate coming from the fact that he and Ethan were in the end… Just the same…

* * *

"Oh no Ethan you go on and have fun." Coyote Yeager said while waving his son off, "You helped enough by working on our pamphlets and setting up the stall with us, your mom, the other employees and I will take care of the rest."

"Make sure you don't do anything we wouldn't." Willow added as her son gave his goodbyes and headed off to wait for Josh Decker, since people were already starting to arrive.

"That gives me a lot of rope then." Ethan thought to himself as he headed off into a tacky celebration of the era of 'Gallant' Knights and Fair 'Maidens'.

* * *

Ethan wasn't forced to wait long, as only about ten minutes later a very familiar figure came up to him while he leaned on a stall reading a tattoo magazine.

"You didn't dress up." Ethan commented on Josh wearing his usual blue track jacket, jeans, white trainers, and his piercings.

"Neither did you." Josh replied, taking in the lithe figure in the tight black shirt, ragged jeans, and cheap sandals.

"My parents dressed up enough for the two of us," Ethan said with a grin, "I thought your mom was coming?"

"She had to go to the changing room," Josh answered and then added when Ethan looked confused, "She's going be helping Mrs. Bennett at the 'Dunk a Witch' as an alternate witch."

Ethan couldn't help but laugh at that, "Come on man, your mom's not that bad…"

"Nope, just a workaholic."

"Come on, let's go." Ethan said while handing the magazine he had borrowed back to the stall owner.

* * *

"Theeese piees are soooo wrong." Tiffany said while looking at the high calorie treats that she and Tori Jericho were supposed to be hawking at inflated prices.

"Tell me about it!" Tori snapped in reply, "And these long skirts are so hard to walk in and the fabric…. Ugh!"

"I knowwww"

This highly rarified dialogue was interrupted abruptly by the familiar sounds of Stacy Rowe, the cute girl in pigtails, sobbing her eyes out and headed their way.

"Stacy, my god you look awwwful." Tiffany Blum-Deckler drawled in her Valley Girl accent.

"Someday I'm going to have to figure out how an Asian girl acquired a Valley Girl accent and a Jewish last name." Tori thought to herself for the thousandth time.

But aloud to her 'friend' Stacy she said, "Yeah, you look really, _really_ bad."

"It's my date from last night, Bret Strand!" Stacy cried in between sobs, "He said he called afterward but he never did and when I went to say hi he pretended that he didn't even see me!"

Then while Stacy broke down again, Tori tried to soothe her, but then Tiffany opened her mouth and asked.

"Sooo he's not dating anyone nowww?"

At that, Stacy's cries reached a deafening pitch and she ran off as fast as her long skirts would let her.

* * *

"Hey Jane!" Ethan said in greeting while Josh stood at his side eating Fried Mutton on a Stick.

"Hey guys," Jane answered back while walking away from a booth selling 'Authentic' Manuscripts from the Middle Ages, "What are you guys doing here?"

"What are you?" Ethan asked as a reply.

"I needed to get out, Trent discovered a new cord and now his band mates are playing it in an infinite loop."

At the mention of Jane's extremely hot brother Trent Lane, Ethan started to look dreamy until remembering who he was standing next to and said some hurried words of sympathy and changed the subject.

"Well my parents set up a stall to sell some of their stuff, and besides I spent the money for a ticket, why not put it to good use."

"Well I wouldn't call it 'good' but it is a use." Jane replied.

Josh then finished the last bite of his mutton and pointed, "Hey look at Mack."

At a nearby tent marked "Slay the Dragon!" Mack emerged in a cheap green dragon costume and made some roaring sounds to a group of kids armed with Styrofoam bats.

"KILL THE DRAGON!" One of the boys roared and then led the charge and proceeded to beat the living hell out of Michael Mackenzie.

"Damm!" Ethan winced in sympathy pain as one of the kids cracked Mack in the balls.

"Ouch!" Josh added.

"I think that was Sandi's little brother Sam, or Chris." Jane said while looking at the boys leading the fight to 'Slay the Dragon'.

Then a scrawny red-headed boy dressed as a jester ran up to them with a cry of, "Hey Jane, would you be interested in a madrigal?"

"No." all three people in the group said in firm tones.

But sadly, Upchucked ignored them and began to sing, "I am Sir Chuck, Sir Chuck, manly, strong, and quiccck!"

"I'm going to cut out your, tongue, your tongue, and fry it up on a stick!" Jane interjected.

Josh then held up his greasy mutton stick as an offering for Ruttheimer's offending organ, either one in fact.

The King of Sleaze then growled and said, "Feisty!" and ran off to harass Tori and Tiffany at the pie booth.

The trio moved on, and while Ethan and Jane made fun of the tackiness of the event, Josh just drank it all in, happy and content.

But when they reached the information booth, a surprising figure was holding court for the kids who hadn't yet discovered the joys of beating up a Lawndale Jock in a cheap costume.

"Andrea?!" Josh said in shock, stunned that Ms. Li would put the schools resident antisocial goth chick in charge.

"Hey guys!" Andrea Hebuca waved, wearing an Elvira style dress, with a rare grin on her face and an even rarer sunny disposition.

Then Andrea continued on with her explanation of the effects of the Black Death during the height of the plague years in Europe.

The kids were cooing, "Oooh!" and "Cool!" clearly loving her rendition of the gory parts of history that their parents were always telling them wasn't for their 'sensitive ears'.

HAH!

But then an even more shocking sight awaited them when Rex Attor walked past the trio in a daze, covered in welts, and completely ignoring (or not noticing) Ethan and Josh and muttering, "That kid's tough for a nerd…"

"My spidy sense is tingling…" Josh said aloud at this.

"I've got to see what this is about." Ethan added and pointed out the direction where Rex had come from.

* * *

Sandi Griffin smiled to herself as with one last hard TUG! The last component of her plan was now in place.

"This is _sooo_ worth dealing with that creepy guy at the bait shop." Sandi thought while checking to make sure that no one was paying attention as she set the candle in place.

Amidst all the fake stuff, who would notice that one of the candles that decorated the back stage was the real thing?

Sandi had learned from the grapevine that Quinn's parents had been forced to split duties; Quinn's mother had taken that girl, Dora or Dahlia, or something to that school where they fence in the geeks.

Her dad had stayed in Lawndale to take Quinn to the Faire.

"And Mother promised to manipulate Jake Morgendorffer." Sandi reminded herself, glad that her wonderful Mother was hard at work, helping to make all this work.

"There's Quinn," Sandi thought to herself as Quinn entered the backstage area, dressed in her costume for the play and working on her lines.

"Time to create some plausible deniability." Sandi steeled herself with these words, a suggestion from her mother and headed toward the evil bitch.

"Hello Quinn." Sandi said in as a contrite voice as she could manage from behind the False Queen of Style.

"Oh Sandi, what are you doing here?" Quinn asked in shock as she used her peripheral vision to make sure that others were around, "And they are, whew!"

"I just wanted… I just wanted to wish you luck."

"Oh… That's nice."

"And to say… I'm really sorry about our fight and I'm really sorry that I tried to use Ethan's personal desires to try and hurt you."

"And him." Sandi added in her thoughts, not quite able to stomp on that little guilt monster.

"Gee Sandi… Thanks!" Quinn said in a completely fake nice voice.

"I know that things won't be the same between us Quinn, but no hard feelings, right?" Sandi replied in an equally fake voice.

"Of course."

And with that, Sandi wrapped up her first stint in serious acting and left Quinn to her lines, wondering when she would figure out that Kevin wasn't…

"Hey!" Quinn exclaimed to herself after Sandi had left, "Has anyone seen Kevin?"

* * *

"Oh babe…" Kevin moaned, lying prone on the bed, "I need… I need…"

"Shush Kevey." Brittany breathed in reply from above, "You poor, poor thing, let me…" Then with a roll and a squeeze of her muscles she made Kevin moan again.

But even in the middle of the longest period of marathon sex he had ever had, Kevin Thompson couldn't help but think, in between orgasmic pleasures that he was forgetting something…

* * *

Now all Sandi had to do was stay backstage until the play was ready to begin and light the candle as quietly as she could, then go to the front to sit with her mother and watch the disaster unfold.

"I hope Mother remembered the camera," Sandi thought to herself, feeling the matches in a hidden pocket in her 'work clothes' (some stuff from last season), "Cus I'll need the tape for the last part of the plan."

* * *

"Try blaming THIS on dysLEXIA!" Mr. DeMartino roared as he charged his foe and within a few seconds he had Joey down for the count on the ground.

As the other two of the Three J's, Jeffy and Jamie got their friend off the ground, Ethan commented, "I think that Mr. D missed his path in life, he should have been beating up teenagers with fake lances from the _start!_"

"Do you think that this is what had Rex all banged up?" Josh asked as the Three J's left, no doubt heading off to cater to Quinn Morgendorffer's every whim.

"Nah," Jane answered, "If he had gone up against DeMartino he would be dead."

Then another set of sounds could be heard from nearby, the clack of wood against wood.

A quick walk away from the Black Knight's fighting ring lead the trio to a roped off area with a sign promising 'Real Sword Training, only $5 per fight!' and in the middle of the ring was the nerdiest kid that Ethan had ever seen.

Except he was wielding a wooden practice sword with expert skill and on the ground before him, battered and bruised was Robert Taravre.

"Hey guys." Robert managed to groan while pulling himself up off the ground.

"Oh hi!" the ArchNerd said, waving to the trio, "I'm Ted DeWitt-Clinton, are you guys all friends?"

"More or less." Jane said diplomatically, wondering if Ted was playing coy or genuinely ignorant of what Ethan and Josh's handholding meant, and not really sure which answer was worse.

"I was just showing Robert what the Art of the Sword is all about!" Ted's voice dripped enthusiasm.

"And it looks like Robert just got art-ed all over." Ethan quipped as he went over to help the big guy up.

"Thanks Ethan," Robert said once he was on his own two feet, "I'll be fine."

The big guy then went over to Ted and actually thanked him for the fight.

"It was a lot of fun little guy, could you show me more of this… after the fair is over?"

"Sure!" Ted exclaimed, "I've been hoping to make friends, it's why I talked my parents into letting me come to Lawndale."

"Where did you go before this?" Josh couldn't resist asking.

"I was homeschooled." Was the answer.

Robert in the meanwhile was giving Ted a pretty big dopey grin and actually ruffled the kid's hair like he was Robert's little brother, or something.

Ethan raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing.

"Let's go see if Mr. D can talk Ms. Li into going up against him." Jane suggested.

As the trio left Robert and Ted to playing with swords, Josh was hoping that they _could _get the Principal and DeMartino to fight, and Ethan was replaying the image of Robert ruffling Ted's hair.

* * *

"Guys, guys if you really want to help, find Kevin because he's not here and there's no one that can play Palamon!" Quinn said in pure panic as the Three J's rushed at her with wishes of luck.

Then they began to talk and fight each other, each wanting to play the role.

The fighting drew the attention of Mr. O'Neill, interrupting one of Quinn's many pleasures, "Oh dear…" the teacher said and then randomly pointed at the J's.

"You, Joey right? You can play Palamon, just take this book, read the lines, and Quinn will do the rest."

He then ignored the groans of disappointment from the other two J's, muttering something about desperate times and desperate measures.

Joey in the meanwhile was holding the book upside down, struggling to follow the letters as they twisted and jumbled themselves into increasingly complicated patterns.

"Are you ok?" Jamie asked in clearly false concern.

"If you can't handle the reading then maybe one of us should…" Jeffy began.

"No guys it's cool," Joey said, failing to keep the panic from his tone, "I can deal."

"How interesting…" Sandi thought to herself from her dark corner, having watched the entire drama play out before her eyes.

She then stepped away in order to take her seat in the front row where her mother would be shortly, and a flickering flame danced merrily and a rope began to burn, slowly due to the resin that had been placed on the area where the candle would burn, but it was burning.

* * *

The play was in full swing, and Quinn was now Emily, a beautiful maiden, amidst a fake set that was made by the students of Lawndale High's Drama Club.

Sandi felt her face form a Mona Lisa smile as Quinn stepped on her cue mark for the balcony scene, she would be standing there for the rest of the scene, and the rope was burning.

"I will make a _dainty _garland for my neck and sing!" Quinn sang in an overly dramatic voice, "La, la, la, la!"

Joey appeared at the balcony and glanced at the book that he had been given, the letters now looked like hieroglyphs.

"Um…" Joey said, his face flush, sweat pouring off of him like buckets of water under the hot lamps, "Um… uhhh… hum… uhh…"

The audience was silent as it started to click in their heads that this wasn't Kevin Thompson and whoever had replaced him either didn't know the lines or had just choked.

The play was now ground to a halt.

"Uh… Joey…" Quinn began.

"I've…. I've gotta go!" Joey managed to stammer out, tears beginning to stream down his face, throwing the book from the balcony and running as fast as his costume would let him.

Quinn then turned to face the audience, her face a mask of pure shock as the crowd began to laugh.

"Snicker, snicker, SNICKER!" A familiar voice began to yell.

"Oh no." was Quinn's last rational thought.

"WHAT'S SO DAMM FUNNY?!" Jake Morgendorffer roared before one of the students threw a turkey leg at him.

"WHY YOU!" Then Jake threw his food in the general direction the leg had come from, two more students threw their turkey legs at Jake and within a matter of seconds a full on food fight had begun.

"Oh god, STOP!" Quinn yelled, while a turkey leg flew over the stage and knocked off her hat, trying to be heard over the crowd before the candle finally burnt through the rope and sent the bucket above on top of Quinn's head.

"AHHHHH!" Quinn screamed as a twisted mass of worms fell all over her, then the remainders were crushed on her skull when the ones still the bucket landed on her head.

Sandi and Linda Griffin's faces bore twin smug smiles as Quinn Morgendorffer managed to break her paralysis and ran, worms crawling and flying off of her pretty gown and face, her screams and tears music to the Griffin women's ears.

"And it's on tape," Linda said to her daughter as she lowered the camera, "Now let's get out of here!"

Sandi nodded, not wanting to become turkey food.

* * *

After about an hour or so of crying, Stacy Rowe finally felt a little better, though her eyes were a really gross shade of red and her face was all splotchy.

"I need some foundation, eye drops, oh WHY DIDN'T HE CALL BACK?!" Stacy's attempt to break her train of thought failed completely, but she had no more tears to give.

In order to get away, Stacy had gone into the school and hid in a locker room, she wasn't sure which one, but surely her feet wouldn't have brought her to the wrong one.

Right?

Stacy decided to try and wash her face, "At least it will make my skin look more normal." She thought as she headed that way, but then stopped dead when she saw the urinals.

"Oh God! Oh GOD!" She said in a high pitch and felt the start of hyperventilation but was cut off by a sound she was very familiar with.

"Oh, is someone crying?" Stacy asked herself, curiosity drawing her into a _boy's bathroom_.

The sound was coming from the stalls, luckily for Stacy the occupant hadn't bothered latching the door, he didn't need to go to the bathroom for the usual reasons.

He had wanted to hide.

"Joey?" Stacy said in a breathy voice as she looked upon one of Quinn's main admirer's sobbing his eyes out as silently as he could.

"Which is the wrong way to go about it." Stacy thought to herself.

"Wha… Why? Who sent… you?" Joey managed to wheeze, "Are you going to make fun of me too?"

"Make fun? Why would I do that?"

"because…. I screwed up the play… Quinn probably hates me… and I…. I….. I can't read…" Joey muttered the last to the level of near inaudible.

"What?" Stacy asked, not having heard the last part at all.

"I… can't…. read!" Joey said much more loudly, now feeling the start of hiccups.

"Oh… Oh! Oh…. Joey…"

"Go ahead, laugh! I'm sure everyone else is…"

"No Joey," Stacy said, managing to pull herself together with impressive dignity, "I won't ever laugh at you for that."

Then she went into the stall and knelt beside him and took some toilet paper and began to dry his tears.

"It'll be ok Joey," Stacy said in sweet soothing tones, "We'll get out of this icky bathroom, and find someone who can help you."

At that it finally clicked in Joey's brain that Stacy Rowe was in a guy's bathroom in the guy's locker room, the question began to form in his head before he realized that he didn't feel like asking.

It was just nice to have someone listen to him and not laugh.

* * *

"Don't worry Sandi," Linda said to her daughter while she drove the family home from the now ruined Medieval Faire. "This is a very good start and I'm proud that you came up with most of the plan all by yourself."

"Thank you mother." Sandi said and smiled at Linda from the front passenger seat.

Her father, Tom Griffin was in the back with Sam and Chris for two reasons, one he played peacemaker between the warring brats, otherwise road travel would be impossible for the Griffins.

The second reason was that Linda much preferred to have Sandi up in front where she could coach her, after all it was Alessandria Griffin who would be following in _her _footsteps.

These things had to be guided every step of the way until she was ready for real prime time.

"Now about the tape," Linda continued, "The reason we stopped at the rental store was so Otis will make copies, hand deliver them tonight, and keep his mouth shut."

"By tomorrow, Quinn Morgendorffer's debut performance will be immortal, and it will be the beginning of the end of her."

Sandi smiled once more, glad that her mother was so proud of her.

She then glanced at her mother and took it in, the strong face, still beautiful despite being older, a high-powered business woman, in charge, powerful, and perfect.

The car stopped at a light, her brothers began to fight again but both Griffin women ignored it, Tom was on top of it.

Then the light turned green and the car began to move, and Sandi went to glance at her mother, just in time to see the large truck that was barreling towards them through a red light.

"MOTHER!" Sandi screamed and began to point to what was coming towards them.

It was the last thing she remembered before waking up in the hospital.

**THE END**

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

"Rewind the tape and let's play it again." Daria said to Jane, who then pushed the rewind button to the video player for her TV.

"Wish I hadn't missed this." Daria said quietly.

"Don't worry Amiga," Jane replied, "At least we have something better than memories, we have a TV, popcorn, and Quinn's humiliation immortalized for us to enjoy at our leisure."

The tape then reached the beginning and Jane stopped rewinding, and let it play again.

* * *

_Notes: Some lines taken from 'Gifted' and 'Fair Enough', Rene Glass is based off the backgrounder 'Orange Girl'._


	3. Chapter 3: Rise Above the Bollocks

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 3 Rise Above the Bollocks**

Numb, that's all that Sandi Griffin wanted to feel was numb as the funeral home's selection of depressing music played in the background.

The pain pills the hospital had given her had helped, she glanced down at the cast on her left wrist, and was still aware that she had quite few stitches up and down her arms and a couple in her cheeks.

She had only gotten up from her chair to go to the bathroom or when the press of people wanting to view her mother had proven to be too much.

"She looks so unreal…" Sandi thought to herself as she lifted her head and once more had a bird's eye view of Linda Griffin, laying in repose in her expensive oak wood coffin. The morticians had had their work cut out for them in repairing the left side of her body to be made fit for viewing.

But it didn't matter to Sandi, she still thought that what was lying in the coffin looked nothing like her mother.

On either side of Sandi were her brothers, Sam and Chris, who for once weren't fighting each other or ganging up on her.

"They're as miserable as me." Sandi thought to herself, unable to cry since she had spent so long at it that everything was either numb or in agony.

But she continued to stare at the coffin, since whenever she looked behind her she would have to look at her father, a quivering mass of useless flesh being comforted by the person who had been forced by necessity to plan the damm funeral.

Tom Griffin's mistress, Evelyn Jericho.

"I need my pills…" Sandi thought to herself, forcing her arms to make the simple gestures to open her purse and get out the little orange bottle and the bottle of water.

* * *

"Well it doesn't seem that even death can stop the gossip mill." Josh Decker said to himself before taking a bite out of the 'Mystery Meat' that the cafeteria was serving that day.

"You have to admit that Tori is in fine form." Ethan said very dryly while they and the rest of the people in the cafeteria got to hear Tori Jericho talk very loudly to her friends at the Style Girls Club's table about the funeral of Linda Griffin.

"And I was thinking that since, my aunt and Sandi's dad are an item that they shouldn't really _bother _to wait, like, a year and just get married now and put all this sadness behind them."

"And here I thought that even the Style Club would have some decency in them." Jane Lane snarked over her peas.

"Uh… Jane." Daria began, "Remember whom you are referring." And then pointed at the Style Girls table.

"Oh yeah."

Ethan did look and he did notice that not all the members were comfortable with that particular line of discussion.

"Brooke looks perturbed, and… I wonder where that Stacy girl is…"

* * *

"I must ADMIT that for a LONG time that I honestly BELIEVED that you were just making up the dyslexia thing in order to get out of HOMEwork." Mr. DeMartino said to Joey Black, one of the infamous Three J's, who was unusually not with his other two friends.

He had skipped out of lunch in order to talk to DeMartino who usually ate his food in his classroom, he preferred to be alone for at least some time before dealing with more idiots.

Exceptions could be made however, for example one of those idiots finally proving that his stupidity wasn't (completely) his own fault.

"Now don't worry sonny boy," Mr. D said in an unusually calm tone, "There are PROgrams available at the local library to help teach basic literacy SKILLS to those with learning disabilities."

At that, Joey perked up and glanced at his companion and smiled at her.

Stacy Rowe smiled right back and mouthed, "I was right!"

"I will CONtact an old FRIend of mine who works there for you." DeMartino continued on before going to his desk to dig out his little black book.

And at that, Joey and Stacy reached for the other's hands and then smiled sheepishly at each other when they realized that the other was reaching for them as well.

When Mr. D found his personal phone book and looked back up, he saw Joey and Stacy holding hands and grinning like fools.

"Awww…" Mr. DeMartino thought to himself, unable to stop the impulse towards softness to a display of affection that he should have put a stop too.

But he didn't.

* * *

"Hey Ethan what are you sketching?" Bob Sorenson asked out of curiosity while tuning out Mr. O'Neill's useless emotional verbal diarrhea.

"Just a couple of tattoo designs I'm thinking about."

"You're thinking about getting some ink? Didn't take you for the type."

"I've always wanted some, but I never had the money until recently."

Josh Decker then perked up at the mention of body modification, having been about to fall asleep, "Yeah, E has created some pretty impressive stuff."

Then he slipped Bob a few of the pictures that Ethan had drawn Josh earlier that day in Art class.

"This is good…" Bob said to himself, flipping through the sheets of paper, "This is damm good… I like this one."

He then showed them the stylized tribal phoenix bird that Ethan had done up when Ms. Defoe had been distracted by one of Brittany's attempts at drawing the day's subject.

Josh Decker gave the drawing a thoughtful look and said, almost to himself, "Yeah, it is impressive isn't it…"

Ethan Yeager smiled at that and put a few finishes touches on an image he saw real potential for, a black and white drawing of an evil Buddha, one hand holding up devil horns, his tongue sticking out, sitting on a dead dragon, and around the image red and yellow flames danced.

"And so class, I want you to select a book from the list in front of you and write a report about it's moral intention." Mr. O'Neill finished just before the bell finally rang.

The students in the room then hurried for the door, but Daria stayed behind…

* * *

"And so now I have to _write _a story with moral intentions, rather than just do a report on one I've already read." Daria complained to Jane, Ethan, and Josh, while they were heading for Jane's house.

"That's what you get for knowing more than the teacher." Ethan quipped.

"Well all you have to do is write about people you know and make them do what you want, I'd make them crawl I tell you. CRAWL!" Jane roared the last and beat her fist to her chest.

"That sounds nice, but I'm not sure what I want to write about… I think I'll sleep on it."

Josh then said, mostly to Ethan, but the other girls could hear it as well, "The track team is still looking for a couple new runners."

"I thought you hated Coach Morris." Ethan replied, knowing that his boyfriend loved jogging and running, but wasn't a member of track.

"Yeah, that's what I told Evan but he's still trying to talk me into joining the team."

At the mention of the name, Evan, Daria Morgendorffer noticed that Jane had perked up and was now paying attention and trying to seem like she wasn't at the same time.

Her act wouldn't have fooled those boys in Highland, much less Daria.

"You shouldn't join something because others think you'd be good, you should join in only if you want to." Ethan answered.

"Yeah…" Josh replied, "But imagine if _you _joined the football team or something."

"Oh God, my parents wouldn't let me hear the _end of it!" _Ethan then shuddered at the thought of the endless rants about 'unhealthy competition' and his dad trying to make him rock climb again.

* * *

A little later after they had arrived at Casa Lane, the sound's Trent's guitar playing was joined by the discordant sounds of Josh Decker trying to learn his first cords on a guitar he had borrowed from Trent's friend Jesse.

"So besides adding ambiance to the room, does the music disturb you while you write?" Jane asked Daria while she worked on her latest painting.

Daria was lying on Jane's bed on her stomach, a blank writing pad in front of her.

"It would if I was doing any writing…"

Ethan was going through his sketch pad and glancing at what Jane was creating and felt like an amateur.

Jane took a few steps back to look at her painting of a woman's warped face while Daria began writing on her pad.

"Well Daria you're not the only one who's work is lacking right now." Ethan muttered to himself without realizing it and put his sketch pad onto his lap.

At that Jane couldn't resist going over and asking Ethan for the pad and then flipped through it.

"Actually E, this stuff is pretty good."

"Really?" Ethan asked with a note of happiness.

"Yeah, I really like the Buddha you drew towards the end."

She then held up the image for Ethan to relook at, "You're just being too hard on yourself, you've just gotta keeping plugging away and eventually it will look and be just right."

"It sounds like good advice." Ethan noted, realizing that Jane wasn't just talking to him.

Daria then growled to herself and wadded up whatever she had been writing and threw it over her shoulder in disgust.

The disharmony that was playing in the background was then broken by a much improved G note being played on a Rhythm Guitar.

"That would be Josh," Jane thought aloud, "That was much too good for Trent's caliber."

Daria and Ethan both agreed with that, even if they were both willing to forgive Trent for his bad guitar solos due to his inherent awesomeness and desirability.

And everything else that sucked about Mystik Spiral as well.

* * *

"I have to admit that for a beginner, you sure have potential." Trent Lane drawled in his slow, lazy voice, as Josh Decker put down the guitar.

"Thanks man." Josh replied just in time for the door to Trent's room to open, and for Ethan Yeager to enter.

"Hey Josh, Trent." Ethan said in greeting. "So how's practice coming along?"

"Well considering that I'm just starting out it's not so bad." Josh said, trying to allow for the fact that he wasn't good at the moment while trying to put it in the best light possible.

Ethan then sat down on the floor with the other two guys and chatted a bit about Daria's writer's block and what Jane had told him about his drawings.

"Can I see your sketch book?" Trent asked, curious to see the Buddha that Jane had apparently liked.

After a few minutes of flipping through the book, Trent said, "This stuff is pretty good… and a lot of it would look great as tattoos…"

"I've been thinking about getting one done." Ethan blurted out, causing Josh's eyebrow to rise up, but he did his best to hide his annoyance.

"Hmm… I do know a guy that does good work for cheap… He's not the cleanest, but he doesn't ask a whole lot of questions." Trent answered, while one of his fingers idly traced an outline of one of the snakes that Ethan had drawn.

"Tell you what, I've wanted to get my eyebrow pierced and Axl gives discounts for two-for-ones, if you're willing to get a piercing with me. I'll take you to him."

"Sure." Ethan said very quickly.

"Cool," Trent replied, "I'll take you later, or tomorrow, or whenever. I like to play these things loose."

Josh's face was now a mask but his eyes burned and his said curtly, "I think I've played enough tonight, come on Ethan, you wanted to go to Zon with me, _remember_?"

"Oh right, sure." Ethan replied, snapping out of his dreamlike stasis and putting his complete focus on Josh.

As the pair left the room, with Josh putting his arm around Ethan in a very possessive manner, Trent felt as though he was looking at something familiar, but it took him a few hours to piece it together.

"Whoa, I think Ethan has a thing for me and Josh is jealous of it." Trent said to himself, unfortunately he said this when he was supposed to be singing Mystik Spiral's new song during rehearsal, which then threw practice into chaos and required thirty minutes of confused explanation.

* * *

Daria crumpled up another sheet of paper in disgust and sighed, "I might as well sleep on this."

She then turned out her light and slipped into bed, she had already changed into her pajamas hours earlier.

But sleep wasn't forthcoming and it was already two in the morning.

"School is going to suck more than usual." Daria thought to herself as she began the tossing and turning game again.

* * *

"So, what kind of piercing are you going to get?" Bob asked Ethan in between bites of the non-food that Lawndale High served its students.

"Not sure yet." Ethan admitted, "I'll probably just get my left earlobe pierced and call it a day."

"Well that works," Bob replied, "But it's kinda boring."

"But I've never had this done before."

"True…"

Josh in the meanwhile thought he found a way to inject himself into the conversation.

"Well a lobe piercing doesn't hurt very much, but the more interesting ones are much more painful to get."

"That's true," Bob admitted, "The ones in the ear cartilage hurt bad, but not as much as ones in the face or the nipples."

"Is this from experience?" Josh asked, unable to hide his curiosity since he had never gotten nipple rings.

"Yup." Bob replied with a grin, "Do you want me to show you?"

"Maybe later." Ethan and Josh answered at the same time, and then laughed when they realized what they had done.

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the table, Daria was scribbling furiously into a notebook, oblivious to the world or the absence of Jane Lane.

* * *

For a whole minute, Jane Lane had the satisfaction of seeing the harsh taskmistress Coach Morris rendered speechless and amazed by what she had just heard.

"Could you run that by me again Ms Lane?" the Coach asked the normally unmotivated and notorious slacker from a family of slackers.

"I want to try out for track; I heard that you need a new runner or two."

At that, the information finally processed in Morris's head and she said, "Of course Ms. Lane, after school during regular Track practice I'll have you do a few sprints and time you and see where things go."

* * *

"Well this isn't turning out the way I planned," Daria thought to herself as she continued to write the fifth page of what was supposed to be Mr. O'Neill's assignment.

But unlike the other attempts this had… potential… What kind though remained to be seen.

"This isn't something I thought I'd ever attempt." Daria admitted to herself as she continued to work out what a leprechaun would be able to do, "But it's quirky, imaginative, and… so far it's _good!"_

As the teacher droned on in the background, Daria decided to see if she could pawn her way out of O'Neill's writing assignment after class was over.

* * *

"I knew it wouldn't work." Daria fumed to Ethan and Josh as they walked back home.

"It was worth a try." Josh replied, trying to build Daria back up to little avail.

"Now I not only have to write a story with moral intentions, I have to include a damm card game as well."

"Well you could do a story about poker and how it ruins… stuff." Ethan suggested weakly, not believing his own suggestion at all.

"Only if I was a bible-thumper."

"Ugh!" Ethan and Josh both muttered, both having gotten more than their share of dirty words and looks for Lawndale's religious students.

Then a blue corvette pulled up beside them and a familiar drawl could be heard as the window came down.

"Hey Ethan," Trent said, "You ready to go to Axl's?"

"Right now? Sure, but can Josh come along?" Ethan asked.

"Sure man, oh hey Daria." Trent answered after noticing the third member of their group.

"Oh hey Trent." Daria answered in a mumble, her face slightly flushed.

"Where's Jayne?"

"She said she had something to take care of after school, but she didn't say what." Daria answered, clearly miffed about being left out of the loop.

"Care to come along?" Trent asked.

"Umm… Sure." Daria answered and then before either guy could move made a quick beeline for the passenger side door, thus forcing the love birds to sit in the back.

As his passengers got into the car, Trent couldn't help but to smile a little at Daria's cleverness, since putting either one of those two in the front would probably have led to some sort of drama.

And Trent didn't need any more drama.

* * *

Sandi Griffin had gone through her first day back to school in a complete daze, she didn't remember any of it. She had barely spoken a word other than muttered 'Thanks for your condolences.' Even when the conversation had nothing to do with her mother's death.

And now, after school, Sandi was doing what she did normally.

She was shopping.

But not at her usual places.

This time she was in an _un_trendy thrift shop, picking out clothes that were either cheap, out of style, or completely _not _her.

Once she had what she wanted, Sandi planned to make a beeline for her house with what felt like (at least to her) contraband and planned to hide everything.

A half-baked plan was forming in her mind, a plan born out of an unexamined desire, but both things were taking shape in the physical world.

Even if Sandi herself wasn't aware of it at a conscious level.

* * *

"Wow Ms. Lane," Coach Morris breathed as she kept glancing back and forth between Jane and her stop watch, "You've done better than most of the members of the track team! Congratulations your now on the team!"

At that the entire track team began to cheer, even to Jane's delight, the brown haired and dark eyed beauty, Evan.

* * *

"Is this place… safe?" Josh asked after a moment's hesitation to find a polite enough word to use.

"Heh, Axl's might be a little grungy but no one I've known has gotten sick." Trent answered as the group of four entered the small tattoo and piercing shop on Dega Street.

A dark haired and heavily tattooed man looked up from a magazine and waved at Trent and said, "Hey man, what'ca need this time?"

"A piercing right here." Trent said and pointed at his right eyebrow, "And this kid here is getting… something…"

"Just my left earlobe." Ethan filled in.

"Yeah that, plus E and Josh wanted to look at some of your tattoo work." Trent finished before swaying for a moment and then coming back to himself.

"It's ok… Just almost dozed off for a second." Trent said, waving off the concern of the three teens that had come with him.

"Well let's get this show on the road." Ethan said and took a chair, while Daria and Josh decided to pass the time by flipping through Axl's photo book of his best works.

Trent in the meanwhile took a seat next to Ethan and promptly passed out.

"Meh, he does that." Axl said to himself and used it as a chance to pierce Trent's right eyebrow quickly, not even that brought Trent out of his unconscious state.

"Now your turn kid." Axl said to Ethan, "But I'll need you pick what you want, size wise."

"Size?"

"Well sure, there are different hole sizes, called 'gauges' and the lower the number the bigger the whole. Plus you can choose between types of earrings to get, I recommend a horseshoe style since they can be taken out and changed for other earrings more easily than the semi-permanent hoops that have become popular."

"Well let's just go with a normal one then." Ethan said, hoping that whatever was 'normal' wasn't oversized.

"A fourteen gauge horseshoe then." Axl said before going over to his tray of prepackaged earrings, looking for a fourteen gauge horseshoe admist the pile.

During this, Daria had gone over to check on Trent and heard him talk in his sleep.

"Um… Monique…." Trent muttered to himself, "That belly ring… so hot…"

No one noticed the thoughtful look on Daria's face as she seemed to zone out of herself while Axl found what he was looking for and instructed Ethan through the process of the piercing.

"Now breathe in," Axl said and Ethan sucked in a breath, Axl then said, "Breath out."

As Ethan breathed out, Axl pushed the piercing completely through, the pain was sharp but brief and then Axl said, "Finished."

"Hey Ethan." Daria suddenly said, "You want another piercing?"

"Why you ask Daria?" Ethan asked, curious about the oddball question.

"I want a belly ring and I have enough cash for a two-for-one deal."

Ethan noticed that Josh had dropped Axl's book in his lap and was staring at Daria in total shock; never in a million YEARS did he think that the Queen Bitch of Lawndale would ever do anything like this… ever!

Ethan only took a moment to absorb the information, running on a small adrenaline rush from the first piercing and said, "Ok, Axl you can pierce the right lobe then."

Axl couldn't resist smiling at that, "This is why I do the two-for-ones," he thought to himself as he readied another piercing for Ethan, "It brings in more customers and they tend to repeat afterward."

* * *

"You see Joey," Stacy Rowe said to the tall dark haired jock, "There's was nothing to be scared of, it's just a library and Mrs. Chaser was as nice in person as she was on the phone."

The two were standing just outside of the office of the head librarian of Lawndale's public library, in order to get into the program Joey needed to be interviewed first, but there is a bone crippling shame that comes with illiteracy and he couldn't face it alone.

So Stacy had been kind enough to accompany him.

"Yeah… she was nice." Joey said, relived that it had been so much easier than he had ever hoped, "She didn't even blink when I told her about my… problem." During this, he followed his instincts and offered his arm to Stacy.

"I'm sure you're not the first person to deal with this Joey." Stacy answered and followed her instincts and accepted his arm and began to head out, but when they passed by the history section they saw an unexpected sight.

The main Offensive Lineman for the Lawndale Lions, Robert Tavare, reading an actual _book _and sitting very, very close to the new nerdy kid, Ted DeWitt-Clinton.

Stacy and Joey decided to make some noise when approaching them, to give them time to reorient themselves if they wanted.

But shockingly they remained in place, except to turn and for Robert to say hi to them both.

"Hey guys, this is Ted, Ted this is Joey Black and Stacy Rowe."

"Hello Joey and Stacy," Ted said in greeting, his very demeanor as sweet as could be, "Are you here to study too?"

"Sorta." Stacy said while Joey said, "No."

An awkward silence hit the four before Joey sucked in a deep breath and decided to fess up and see what happened.

"I came to sign up for the learning disability program."

"But is that for people who can't read…" Ted began before he made the mental connection, "Oh... Oh! Oh my… I'm sorry man."

"I'm dyslexic." Joey offered up, "And… I'm actually doing something about it."

Stacy gave Joey a beaming smile and said, "And I'm proud of you for doing it."

"Aww babe." Joey said in an 'aww shucks' manner, and then realized he called Stacy 'babe'.

"Uhh…" Joey said embarrassed that he had done so but Stacy cut him off with a squeal and a hug, which was then cut off by a "Shush!" from a passing librarian.

"Well you guys seem busy so we'll just leave you too it." Stacy said quietly after that and she hustled Joey away and continued towards the exit.

* * *

Robert Tavare then looked at Ted and said, "I never knew that about him."

"Getting treatment for dyslexia this late in life… That's going to be a tough road to walk." Ted said, only partly to himself.

"At least he isn't alone." Robert commented, noting that if Joey and Stacy weren't dating yet they soon would be.

"And neither are we." Ted said with a warm smile at the big guy sitting next to him.

Robert gave Ted a big grin and ruffled the little guy's hair.

"Nope," Robert said softly, "We are never alone little guy."

* * *

They could be heard all through the house, the moans, the groans, the pitiful begging from her father for more, more pleasure, more pain, more, more, more, more!

It was enough to make anyone sick, or go crazy.

And Sandi Griffin had been forced to listen to her father and that… whore! Go at for _hours_!

She glanced in the bathroom mirror one last time; the temporary dye had left her hair completely pink with blue streaks that could be washed out with a special rinse.

The clothes she was wearing, the skimpy shredded top with a band logo she didn't recognize (the Sex Pistols), the tight low cut ragged jeans, the black high-top converse sneakers, plus an ankh necklace and a wraparound bracelet completed this completely different look.

Sandi sucked in a breath, and then she took a pill and swallowed it dry, and glared at the ugly cast on her left wrist before heading to the bathroom door and opening it.

She took a single step out and realized that her brother Sam had left his bedroom door open and he, her youngest brother Chris, and their friend Brian Taylor (Brittany's half-brother) had seen her.

But they themselves were also busted with two six-packs of beer and Brian had been lighting up a cigarette.

"I'm going out." Sandi said lamely, "If you don't talk, I won't talk."

She then left before any of the three could say a word.

* * *

At the Zon, Ethan and Josh were listening to Trent's girlfriend Monique perform with her band the Harpies. Along with their friend Bob and his two girlfriends Angel and Burnout, they were telling them about their trip to Axl's.

"And _Daria_ got a piercing?!" Angel asked, her long blown out blond hair quivering with her every word.

"Yup, her first piercing is a silver belly ring." Josh answered, still amazed himself at what he had witnessed.

"Wow!" Burnout said in awe while brushing her overlong bang away from her eye for a moment, "You guys are sure that… this isn't a different Daria… right?"

"Yup, it's the Daria Morgendorffer that Quinn has denied being related too for years now." Ethan said, making everyone laugh at the bizarre lengths that the Queen of the popular girls would go to deny something that everyone had already figured out by comparing their last names and, well… Everything about them!

The five of them then enjoyed some idle chat before Angel noticed something and asked, "Who's the new girl over there?"

The gaze then fell on the sight of a chick they didn't know who looked to be about 15 chatting up one of the punks who hung around Zon.

"I like her hair…" Burnout drawled, she loved bright pretty colors, even if she never wore them herself.

"Pink and blue do go together." Josh admitted.

"Why does she look so familiar…" Ethan wondered for a moment before turning his attention back to Josh and asked him which of Monique's songs he liked so far.

Bob was silent, keeping his thoughts to himself, but excused himself when the pink-haired girl left with the punk everyone called "Spike".

He had a feeling in his gut that the girl the others hadn't recognized was about to bite off more than she could chew and would need some back up.

"Sandi Griffin don't you dare get hurt before I get there." Bob thought to himself as he did his best to follow and hang back as Spike lead Sandi through a side exit out of the Zon and towards the back alley.

* * *

Sandi felt the stranger's tongue slide in between hers while his greasy hands pawed at her chest and pretty much everywhere. She felt her back press up against the brick wall and she kissed back and groped him in turn, despite feeling the bile in the back of her throat.

"I wanted to feel something besides pain…" Sandi thought to herself, "I didn't want to feel, like, disgusting."

Sandi pushed against the spike haired punk's chest, shocking him into taking a step back, both of them panted for breath.

"I'm sorry…" Sandi breathed, "I'm not ready…"

The punk gave her a dark glare and said, "I don't feel like playing the hot-and-cold game tonight lassie."

Those words rendered Sandi Griffin paralyzed, fear gripped her spine and turned her bowels into jelly, never in her entire _life _had any guy come within a mile of such a threat.

Her focus fell purely upon the muscular, skanky, punk in front of her, time seemed to slow down and she the rip of a small condom package being opened.

"No…" Sandi whispered allowed in a tiny squeak.

Her focus had fallen so completely upon the man in front of her that she didn't even notice the blue-haired guy come up behind Spike and clocked him so hard from the side that he hit the ground in one punch.

Time sped up for Sandi, and her blue haired savior was now on top of the other punk and within two punches had rendered him unconscious.

"You alright Sandi?" her still nameless savior asked and she managed a small squeak and a nod, still gripped to the marrow with fear.

"Don't worry about Spike," he said with a dismissive wave, "By tomorrow he won't remember a damm thing. Lucky for him, I guess."

"Hey Bob," a female voice emerged from the background as two girls Sandi recognized from school emerged from a nearby open door, "We were looking for… Oh shit! What happened?!" upon the sight of the punk on the ground, Bob's bloody knuckles, and the girl from earlier terrified and shaking like a leaf.

"We need to get out of here for the night, Angel, Burnout, go get the others." Bob said with conviction.

"I have a car parked…" Sandi managed to chatter out.

"That'll do." Bob replied, giving Sandi a kind smile, hoping that getting her out of here would help.

* * *

Sandi Griffin's sports car was a tight fit for six people, but Bob was elected to do the driving (without a license), Ethan in the passenger side seat, and Sandi in-between Angel and Burnout with Josh on the other side in case having a guy nearby so soon would be too much.

"This was so stupid." Sandi said to herself, while Angel and Burnout continued to do their best to soothe and comfort her.

"I just wanted… I just want to be someone else. I don't want to be me."

"A breakthrough." Ethan thought to himself, and then thought better of it.

"My mother is dead and Tom brought that… that… woman! Into my mother's house…"

"And my brothers… oh god! My little Sammy and Chris… and their twisted friend… drinking and smoking…"

"Aren't' they ten or something?" Josh asked himself in his mind.

Then Sandi fell back on the topic of her father and his mistress, and the fact that they were having very loud sex in the Griffin house and had been doing so for hours on end.

"Everything is falling apart! I'm not popular anymore… Quinn still rules everything I did once, my family is dead! My wrist hurts… Where are my pills?"

Sandi then began digging in her purse, but as soon as the pill bottle came out, Angel snatched it and chucked it out of the speeding car.

"HEY!" Sandi roared in outrage.

"Drugs are the last thing you need right now." Angel replied simply and then went back to soothing gestures and sounds as though it didn't happen.

After a few minutes of simmering anger, Sandi then fell into a silence before saying, "I just wanted to get away… I wanted to feel… alive again."

During this entire explosion of emotion Sandi had been staring into space, but now her head turned towards the passenger seat to her right and said more clearly.

"Ethan, I know that I, like, fucked up bad, using you to get at Quinn, and I wish I had listened to myself and not did it, but I… I listened to my mother and everything she said about getting to the top."

"By stepping on everyone else…"

Sandi then fell silent for a long moment; in fact the other passengers were deathly silent before Sandi broke the silence again.

"I'm _sooo_ sorry…"

"Apology accepted." Ethan replied quietly from the front, yet his voice carried towards Sandi like a golden chariot and for the first time in what felt like ages, she began to feel just a tiny bit better.

* * *

"I'll let Sandi stay the night at my place with the three of us." Bob said quietly to Angel and Burnout after he dropped Josh off at his house, Ethan following in his wake.

Both Angel and Burnout nodded at this, ok with having their later night activities postponed due to the… Situation.

Sandi managed to say a weak, "Thank you." Before her car sped it's way to Bob's house, where thankfully his parents were out visiting friends in Oakwood for the next two nights.

* * *

"I love you." Robert said simply to Ted from across Robert's queen sized bed.

The duo were at the Tavare residence, Ted once more helping Robert study, and under Ted's tutelage Robert had made some improvement despite his hazy memory.

That I love you, so random in the conversation about algebra it threw Ted off balance for a moment, then it clicked in his head what he had heard.

"I… I… what?"

"I love you Ted." Robert said again, keeping his fear in check, hoping against hope that his guess about Ted was right.

"I… I… I… I never thought…. You liked me… like that…" Ted stammered, his face quickly turning beet red.

"I do."

"Idotoo." Ted said in a rush, mashing the words together.

He then cleared his throat and said more forcefully, "I do to."

"I mean I never thought that anyone felt this way… besides me." Ted began before Robert cut him off with a peck on the lips.

A peck that quickly turned into a full on kiss, Robert's second with a guy, and Ted's first kiss in his life, but Ted proved to be a quick learner in this as in everything else.

And he proved to be a quick learner in what came next as well.

* * *

After about an hour, Ted felt the expansive muscular frame of Robert upon his skin and managed to stop panting from his very first time.

"That was incredible." Ted wheezed out.

From beneath him Robert managed to reply with, "Yeah… it was."

* * *

"I'm disgusting." Rex Attor thought to himself as he washed his mouth out with a small bottle of Listerine. The crisp late night air was such a clean contrast to the skanky bathroom he had been in for over two hours, having sought out a release that he often sought out here with others in denial.

"I wish I was fucking normal," Rex thought to himself as he spat out the mouthwash and some of the taste onto the ground, "Why can't I be normal…"

Rex walked away from the skanky bathroom and began the walk back home, to sleep at least a little bit with his demons at rest.

The next day would begin the same old song and dance again.

* * *

"And your story made your mother cry?" Jane asked her friend Daria as they walked to school.

"Out of happiness, that's the sick part." Was Daria's reply.

"And what will you do if Mr. O'Neill cries?" Ethan asked from behind them, a grin on his face.

"I'll have to kill myself."

"Nah, kill O'Neill, you'll be doing him a favor."

"And us." Jane added.

The trio then continued their walk in silence, which Ethan found unusual since Jane and Daria were fond of snarking the morning away before they reached school.

For the practice if nothing else.

Then Josh Decker jogged up from the distance to join his boyfriend and gave him a warm peck on the cheek and greeted Jane with.

"I heard you made the track team, I'd congratulate you but you'll be dealing with Coach Morris."

"What?!" Ethan asked in shock.

Daria said nothing, but sped up, leaving the three behind in her wake.

"Yeah…" Jane replied, her gaze on Daria, "I decided to show Morris that the Lanes are more than just slackers."

"Your slackers who can haul ass from the police?" Ethan asked.

This brought Jane a small laugh, but it died as she looked at Daria's back in the distance.

* * *

"Thank you Bob." Sandi said quietly to the boy in the passenger side of her car, Angel and Burnout were already climbing out of the back.

"Don't mention it Sandi." Bob replied, "That guy is dirt and needed to be beaten down long ago."

"But won't your friends here…" Bob began as he took in Sandi's totally changed appearance.

"They weren't really my friends," Sandi answered weakly, "I mean we called each other friends but… the only ones I felt a connection too went with Quinn…"

"Besides, I kinda like it."

Sandi had spent the night at Bob's, asleep on the couch, curled up in a borrowed blanket in the fetal position. In the morning she had showered quickly and simply borrowed a shirt from Angel and just wore everything else from last night.

The shirt in question was a shredded white cotton t, promoting an older band called 'Crass'.

Her hair dye had mostly washed out, but there were still obvious flecks of pink and blue and the total effect was…

"Kinda cool." Sandi thought to herself when she glanced at herself in the rearview mirror before stepping out of the car and walking through the parking lot towards the building. The word of her transformation spreading faster than she could move towards the entrance.

* * *

"I can't BELIEVE that Sandi has gone punk!" Tori said in overtly loud tones as a gaggle of Freshman girls walked passed.

"I knowww." Tiffany replied.

"And did you hear about Stacy…" Tori began before Quinn came up behind her and said, "What about Stacy?"

"Oh… Hey Quinn!" Tori answered, covering her surprise very quickly, "I was just telling Tiffany the word about the school and… well…"

"Well what?" Quinn began before Tiffany gasped and pointed.

"Looook!"

Coming towards them, was Stacy Rowe and Joey Black, one of the Three J's and Quinn's unofficial lapdogs and safety dates.

And Stacy and Joey were walking hand in hand, the official first flag given to indicate a dating status.

"Oh this ought to be good…" Tori thought to herself as Quinn seemed to have become a statue, paralyzed by shock.

But it wouldn't last long.

* * *

"Stacy!" Quinn squeaked out in her most sickeningly sweet voice, a very blatant early warning sign of trouble ahead.

"Oh hey Quinn…" Stacy answered picking up on the cue.

Quinn didn't even look at Joey, keeping her focus purely on Stacy, who didn't even have the decency to be ashamed.

Quinn opened her mouth to do… What exactly not even she knew but then the other two J's ran up with their usual sycophantic offers.

For a brief moment Joey's body did an instinct lurch towards them and Quinn but he quickly adjusted himself and stopped and said to Stacy as quietly as he could. "Sorry Stacy, force of habit."

But it wasn't quiet enough and that's what set Quinn off.

"Force of habit…" Quinn said, emphasizing each word like they were obscenities, "That's all I am to you then, a habit like, smoking or something nasty?"

"No no no…" Joey began, trying to think of a way out.

"Quinn what I think Joey meant to say is…" Stacy began, but Quinn cut her off with an impressive glare.

Stacy fell on an instinct "Eep!" But then berated herself for falling into old habits herself.

Stacy sucked in a breath and then managed to speak just as Quinn was opening her mouth.

"Joey and I are now officially dating. As in seriously dating."

Quinn's mouth just hung open.

"I know you think of the J's as your property and if Jeffy and Jerome are ok with it then fine, but Joey and I… we clicked after the Medieval Fair and we are going to see where this goes. If you want to show everyone that you're my friend and support us then that's great, but if you don't want too that's ok too, I'll just… I'll just find some new friends."

And with that, Stacy pulled on Joey's arm and led him away from the flabbergasted Quinn and the other two J's, who were stunned at Joey's defection.

"I'm Jamie." Jamie White said very weakly.

"Shut up." Quinn said out of force of habit.

Tori Jericho stood in the background, taking mental notes and twisting things to make it sound more horrid for the gossip mill.

Tiffany however had found her reflection in a beam of light on a nearby locker, she was oblivious to the world.

* * *

"Daria…" The familiar voice of Quinn said from behind Daria Morgendorffer as she closed her locker, "I want to talk to you."

Daria sucked in a breath, a bad day had just turned worse.

"About…?"

"Well it's kinda… it's about Stacy. Well you see, for some reason she and Joey met at the… Fair." Quinn still had difficulty in bringing up that atrocity. If it hadn't been for Linda Griffin's death that same day, Quinn's disaster of a performance would have been such a dominant topic that she doubted that her popularity would have survived.

"And…" Daria drawled, wanting to end this quickly.

"Well they're now dating and… It's not fair!"

"What's not fair about it?"

"The J's are… Well they're…"

"Yours?"

"Yes!" Quinn said excitedly and clapped her hands together once, "Yes that's it exactly."

Daria sucked in another breath and decided to press forward, "Quinn, just because those three would, and have, bent over backwards for you doesn't make them your personal servants."

"But…" Quinn began before Daria cut her off.

"They are their own person… _persons_!" Daria corrected herself, even she had difficulty in keeping the three of them separate in her mind.

"If Stacy and Joey want to try and date each other exclusively for a while, then let them, it's their right. Besides, it's not like Jeffy or the other one is hooking up with Tiffany and Tori, right?"

Quinn began nodding to herself and quietly said, "Hey yeah! Your right Daria. Thanks a bunch!" Then the Queen of Style hurried off, lest one of her fashionista friends saw her with someone so… unpopular.

"Thank god for minor miracles." Daria said to herself before heading off to gym, thankful that the conversation had been a short one.

* * *

Tori Jericho, the unofficial Gossip Queen of Lawndale High had just finished regaling her audience of fellow Gym students changing before the start of 'Agility Training' when she glanced over and saw something that stunned her.

Daria Morgendorffer had just lifted up her ugly mustard yellow shirt to change, which revealed a silver belly button piercing upon her person.

"Is it a fake?" Tori asked herself before concluding due to the redness that it was both real and new.

"Oh this should be worth an hours' worth of conversation at least." Tori thought to herself, before making a beeline for the other Gossip Queen of Lawndale, Brittany Taylor and quietly whispered to her to look at Daria.

"DARIA!" Brittany squeaked in shock, drawing the attention of the _entire _girls lockerroom, "You got a belly ring!"

"Wow I didn't know a person could turn beet red from the face all the way down." Tori said to herself quietly as she witnessed Daria's reaction.

* * *

"You know I've never actually been inside this place before." Josh said aloud as he and Ethan entered the Yeager's storefront.

"And I've never met your father," Ethan teased and then backpedaled when he saw Josh turn white and his face began to shift to fury, "Joking, joking man, relax."

"Yea… Joking…" Josh muttered, "Just don't bring _him _up again."

Josh then went quiet, and used the excuse to look around to be by himself for a few minutes, it was a nice storefront, but a bit small.

"Then again, E did say that most of their business comes from online orders, I'll bet the rest of the building is used for making all this stuff." Josh thought to himself while he felt up a tie-dyed shirt for a minute.

Ethan made a beeline towards the cash register and asked the new clerk, Artie to go tell Coyote that his son was here.

"Ethan!" Coyote Yeager said a booming voice as he emerged through the beads that sealed off the way between the store's front and the rest of the building.

"Hey Dad, wazup?"

"Not much son, I see you brought Josh over to see the pride and joy."

"Yeah Dad, and I wanted to ask you something…" Ethan then paused to look around and saw that Josh was checking out the bongs.

"Coast is clear son." Coyote whispered slyly.

"I want to do something nice for Josh… Like _real _nice but I can't come up with any good ideas." Ethan said, the frustration evident in his tone.

"You know what Ethan," Coyote replied after a long moment, "Let me talk to your mother so we can brainstorm something… Nothing real out there!" He added as he saw the look in his son's eyes.

"We'll help you come up with romantic."

"Thanks Dad," Ethan answered, but couldn't add more since Josh was heading their way with one of the bongs that his father had made out of a can of Pepsi, cleverly made up to look like it was still full.

* * *

Willow Yeager answered the phone, hoping that it was that very nice man who had offered her an exorcism for their dog Leary IV since he had started to seem depressed since the move.

Instead a voice she hadn't heard since her college years came from the other end.

"Sarah?"

"I go by Willow now sis." Willow answered quietly, in complete shock at this call.

"I know but you'll always be Sarah to me."

"How did you get this number?"

"Hehehe… Sis, remember I did marry a Sloane, I do have the resources to track things down if I need to."

"And why did you need to track me down after all this time?"

"I… I heard you moved to Lawndale."

"Yes…"

"And I… I want to try and patch things up."

Willow was silent for a full minute, but her sister pressed forward.

"I'm sending you, your husband, and your son an official invitation to my husband's beach home at the Cove, a short weekend trip and we can…"

"Try to bridge a gulf that is now decades old?" Willow asked quietly, unable to articulate the complex wave of emotions that were flooding her body.

"Yeah… something like that."

Willow took in a deep breath, "I'll need to talk to Coyote and Ethan about this."

"Of course."

Willow took in another deep breath and then said, "I'm… I'm glad you called."

"Thank you Sarah… Willow."

"You're welcome Kay."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Willow put the phone on the hook and then sat down on the couch and just hugged her arms to her body and began to shake. Her mind taking her back to a time before she met Coyote, before she had found her life taking an unexpected turn.

When she had been Sarah Haywood and her sister Kay Haywood had been the debutantes of a world of riches and wealth that Willow had left behind… For love.

* * *

Sandi Griffin sat on the living room couch, thankful that her father and his whore had been out when she had gotten back home.

"I wonder if anyone, like, noticed I was gone." Sandi asked herself aloud as she stared at the still turned off television screen

"We knew you were gone." the voice of her oldest brother, Sam, called from the stairs.

In a few moments, her two bratty brothers had come down the stairs to the living room, a tangle of limbs and jerky movements.

"Sam… Chris." Sandi said with a sad smile and did something she hardly ever did, she gave them hugs.

And after the perfunctionary protests that all little boys give, they then returned the hug to their normally bitchy elder sister.

"I've had a rough night," Sandi told them quietly after they settled themselves on the floor, "And a tolerable day, I'm not in the mood to talk about it."

Sam and Chris both nodded at that.

"But while I won't tell Father what you two have been up too I do, like, want to ask, why are you two…" Sandi trailed off, the obvious answer hitting her like a ton of bricks.

Sam filled the void with, "We're trying to feel something other than misery… and it helps when Father is…"

"That's enough." Sandi cut him off, "I understand, more than you should know."

Chris then asked the question that was burning in his gut, "Why the new… look?"

Sandi gave a sad smile once more, "I wanted to try something different, go somewhere different, be someone different, I almost got hurt real bad but I met someone…"

She was cut off by the sound of a car pulling up in the garage, none of the three Griffin children bothered to get up as they heard a single set of footsteps head towards the front door.

Tom Griffin came in, spilling legal papers all over the floor, his face streaked with tears, he shut it behind him and completely broke down sobbing.

The Griffin children were unable to move from the shock.

"Evelyn… she left me…" Tom sobbed, "Linda… **oh god! What have I fucking done?!**"

Tom slowly sank to the floor while he did this, and at the last syllable, curled up into a ball and his body began wracking itself with his misery.

Sandi cautiously approached her father, brothers following in her wake, she tried to put a comforting arm on him but he shook it off.

Then from behind her she her Sam ask, "Hey are all these papers Mother's will?"

* * *

"And I thought Morris was a hardass in gym," Jane Lane thought to herself as she continued to put in her all during training for the upcoming track meet, her very first as part of the Lawndale Track Team.

"Faster! Faster! Keep your pace hard and strong!" Coach Morris roared like demon from the pit of Hell itself.

Jane asked herself why she had subjected herself to this before catch the sight of Evan, beautiful, delicious Evan outstripping the rest of the team.

"Oh yeah." Jane thought to herself and then put in even more energy to try and catch up to what was apparently Hermes given mortal flesh.

* * *

Ethan gave Daria a small, supportive smile as she looked at him from her prone position on the hospital bed and said, "I'm sorry about the whole piercing thing, I should have talked you out of it."

"Don't be sorry Ethan," Daria replied, "It was my choice to get it, remember."

"True, but I still feel kinda bad, especially since mine are fine." Ethan said while flicking his two ear lobes and the horseshoe hoops that dangled from them.

"Besides," Daria continued, "Dr. Phillips is convinced that this was a combination of an infected piercing and the intense stress of having everyone staring at it at once in the girl's locker room."

"Well as long as the antibiotics work you should be fine right?"

"Yeah, some of the redness is already fading."

"I assume that the hospital made you take the belly ring out then?"

"Yup, and if they hadn't then I'm pretty sure that Mom or Dad would have broken out the pliers."

"New or rusty?"

"Meh… Not sure, maybe I'll ask them once they've calmed down."

Both Ethan and Daria paused and glanced at the closed door where they could hear the murmuring voices of their parents, the Morgendorffers and the Yeagers.

"So what's got your parents so worked up anyways Ethan?"

"My Aunt called my Mom today."

"I assume this isn't an ordinary occurrence."

"They haven't talked since the sixties."

"Oh." Daria said simply, and then mentally berated herself for not making the leap in logic.

"And now we've been invited to 'The Cove' so that Mom and Aunt Moneybags can mend fences." Ethan said in a dull monotone.

"It sounds like the start of a bad slasher film."

Ethan couldn't help but laugh at that, "Hey yeah, it does doesn't it…"

* * *

After a long day of track practice, Jane had gone straight to the hospital to check on Daria before heading back home to try and catch up on homework.

At least that had been the plan, but for some reason the pages of her math book were all blurry and they seemed to be getting closer and closer…

Thus an hour later when Trent came in her room to ask if there was any food in the house he found his little sister asleep with her face buried in a book.

"Best fix this." Trent said to himself and did a very rare thing, he exerted actual effort into getting Janey out of her desk chair and onto her bed.

"Night sis." Trent whispered softly before shutting the light off on his way out.

* * *

Rex Attor was in grungy clothes, which was fine since he was at the Zon, looking for a drink, a fight, or (only admitted in the depths of his mind) a hook up with a random stranger.

"God the music sucks here." Rex slurred to himself as the vodka really began to kick in, the room felt all spinney.

"I've gotta go…" Rex said to no one in particular as he stumbled to what he hoped was the guys bathroom, though in a place like the Zon it was doubtful that anyone would notice a difference.

By keeping his hand on one of the walls, and ignoring the strange growths there, Rex found the door with the correct symbol and stumbled in.

The bathroom was mercifully empty except for one other guy using one of the two urinals.

Rex reached the empty urinal to do his business, and checked to make sure his aim was right, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the blue-haired guy next to him was kinda cute.

Rex just had enough presence of mind to finish pissing and put everything back in working without any embarrassments.

But it didn't extend to the bad idea of hitting on the cute guy next to him in a strange club that was in his hometown.

Bob Sorenson in the meanwhile fell on his instinct to list things in his mind, like A) Rex Attor the School's best Tailback was next to him at Zon, B) Rex Attor was drunkenly _hitting _on him, and C…

"Well this explains a lot." Bob thought to himself just as he noticed Rex's eyes became a little more focused and recognition entered into them.

"Hey do I know…?" Rex began to slur before it finally clicked, "Oh fuck!"

* * *

Joey Black and Stacy Rowe were sitting next to each other in the movie theater on their first official date, watching a cheesy action movie.

"I'm so glad you talked me into this." Stacy said to Joey just as the killer robot blew up, saving the Earth from utter defeat at the hands of the Robo-Aliens from Alpha Centauri.

"I figured we could use something with explosions." Joey replied quietly and nuzzled Stacy's neck, making her giggle and causing quite a few people in the theater to stare at them.

"Sorry!" They both said as quietly as they could and still be heard.

After the movie ended and the credits began to roll, the happy couple strolled out of the theater arm in arm.

"So how have your study sessions been going?" Stacy asked, using the agreed euphemism for Joey's classes at the library to work on his dyslexia.

"So far it's been about working on 'comprehension of letters'," Joey replied, taking care with the unfamiliar big words, making sure he said them right, "Ms. Chaser says that while there isn't a cure, that with practice I can manage this so I can read and write ok."

"That's good Joey." Stacy replied as she rested her head on Joey's shoulder.

The couple walked towards a nearby park, found the nearest bench and then did what red-blooded teenagers did best.

They made out, hardcore.

* * *

"How did I get so lucky?" Robert asked aloud while lying on his stomach, naked as the day he was born after some of the best sex of his life.

"Hmm… Not sure big guy…" Ted replied from above, "I wouldn't think about it too much and just… go with it."

Ted then laid himself upon Robert's back and just… stayed there for a while, enjoying post-sex bliss.

But eventually reality had to intervene and Ted needed to go to the bathroom, but when he came back, Robert had shifted and was now sitting on the bed with a blanket wrapped around his waist.

"Hey Ted," Robert said quietly, "I've been thinking… I want to tell my parents about… All of this."

"Are you sure?" Ted asked in trepidation.

Robert nodded and continued, "I'm sick of living a lie, especially since I found… you."

Ted couldn't help but smile at that and added, "If you're going to do this, then I will too."

Robert looked concerned at Ted and began to open his mouth but Ted cut him off.

"No big guy, I know my parents will probably react badly, but… I don't care."

The dopey grin that formed on Robert's face was contagious, it spread to Ted's face, and then it spread to other parts of their bodies and then…

* * *

As Ethan Yeager shucked off the last of his clothes and began to get ready for bed, a sudden thought stopped the whole process cold.

"Wait, that trip to the Cove falls on the same weekend as Jane's big track meet… Oh fuck! I'm going to miss this for a journey into McRichland!"

* * *

"Hey Jane wait up!" Ethan said as he caught up to Jane in the hallways of Lawndale High, as Ethan reached her he noticed that the guy she was talking to was one of the guys on the Track team.

"Oh sorry if I was interrupting…"

"It's ok Ethan." Jane said, "What's going on?"

"Not much Janey," Ethan replied, "I just wanted to tell you… I won't be able to see your big track meet."

"Oh." Jane said quietly, "Are you mad at me like Daria?"

"What? No of course not." Ethan replied, "Wait, and why _is _Daria mad at you?"

"It's complicated," Jane answered, clearly not happy with the situation, "But why are you bailing?"

"Cus my parents are dragging me to the Cove."

"The Cove?" Evan asked, annoyed at being ignored, "Isn't that where the Rich people go to relax from counting money?"

"Yeah…" Ethan said sheepishly, "My mom and her sister are having a reunion of sorts, and Aunt Sloane has invited all of us for this 'happy reunion', I predict the apocalypse."

"Sloane…" Jane said while stretching out the word, "As in _the Sloanes?"_

"Yup, Kay Sloane is my aunt; my mom is her estranged sister."

"Whoa." Jane and Evan both breathed.

"Yup," Ethan answered, "and on the whole I'd rather be at the track meet than dealing with boring old money types."

"Yeah I could see that." Evan answered and decided to change the subject by asking how Ethan stayed fit despite not being on a sports team.

"Well up until recently my parents were big on 'living off the land', so if we wanted to eat we had to do the work to grow food, after the move I guess gym class and running with my boyfriend keeps me in shape." Ethan answered.

"Ah." Evan breathed, "I've seen you during Coach Gibson's classes, your pretty good with a pigskin… I'm surprised he hasn't drafted you onto the team."

"My parents would kill me if I did that," Ethan answered with a laugh, "Hippies and sports don't really mix and all that."

Then when Ethan noticed that Josh was approaching he was forced the leave the conversation at that and left.

As Jane Lane half-listened to Evan's running commentary on how he could talk Ethan and Josh into joining the track team, now that he knew they were both running, she thought back to the conversation she had had with Daria over the phone that morning.

"I'm sorry Daria," Jane said to herself once more, "I don't really have a choice if I want to keep that C average in math, I'm going to have to take a Bye."

* * *

"This sucks man." Josh said once Ethan informed him of everything that had happened between his Mom and his Aunt in the last 24 hours.

"If you don't mind me asking, what did happen between your Mom and Kay Sloane?"

"I'm not sure," Ethan answered quietly, "She doesn't talk about it… ever. And now out of the blue, Aunt Sloane was to try and fix things? I don't get it, this whole thing makes no sense."

"Well if you guys do fix things, can I borrow 50 bucks?" Josh asked jokingly.

"Ha ha, very funny." Ethan sarcastically intoned.

"Well while you're away at the lair of the Idle Rich, make sure you have as many distractions as possible tucked away in your bags, cus otherwise this is going to be a dull weekend." Josh said more seriously.

"Already ahead of you on that Josh." Ethan replied, having already packed an extra bag that was basically a lifeline of the entertainment industry.

"Good boy." Josh said with a grin.

* * *

"You wanted to talk, so talk." Rex said with hostility as he looked at the blue haired Punk in front of him, the guy he had accidently flirted with at Zon.

Bob Sorenson glanced around to make sure they were alone, they were hanging out near the back of the school at the dumpsters during lunch, they wouldn't be bothered but better safe than sorry.

"So about last night…" Bob began, curious about the response.

"It doesn't matter, it was nothing, nothing!" Rex said hurriedly, the panic rising with every syllable, "I was drunk… Yea that's it… just the booze was all… I need to go…"

"You're not going anywhere." Bob replied forcefully, causing Rex to stop in his tracks as he tried to turn.

Bob took in the sight of the football player standing before him, a quivering mass of intense emotions, a volatile mix of extreme rage and crippling depression.

"You've been giving quite a few people a very hard time over the years for not fitting into 'the box' of conformity. And all this time it's just been you compensating for not fitting into it either." Bob said in quiet, dangerous tones.

Rex Attor stood before him like a child being scolded.

"Look, I don't have any issue with you being gay, bi, or just 'curious', but I do have a serious problem with self-serving hypocrites."

"I… I… I…" Rex tried to stammer out, "I'm disgusting…"

"No you are not Rex," Bob said, "Though your behavior _has _been."

During this Rex had been slowly backing up against the dumpster, and then he sank to the ground and then began to hold himself and shake.

Bob was forced to kneel in order be eyelevel with Rex in order to continue… Whatever this was, at this point Bob was just following his instincts.

"You should start with some honesty, for your own benefit if nothing else."

"I… I'm not… normal." Rex finished the last with tears welling up in his eyes.

"No one is Rex, no one is." Bob said with his first sign of sympathy.

"I try… I've tried so fucking hard… But I've… done things… in bad places…" Rex managed to say in between fighting back sobs.

"It's ok man, just let it out." Bob said quietly and held out his arms.

Within a few moments, Rex Attor was crying like a child and hugging the blue haired Punk fiercely for support.

"Hmm… Maybe David is right," Bob thought to himself as Rex let out years of repressed emotion, "Maybe I should consider becoming a psychologist."

* * *

Ethan Yeager smiled to himself as he got into the families new Volvo, it looked simple on the outside but the inside had quite a few luxuries.

"Even 'pleather' interior," Ethan thought to himself with an inner smile, "Or at least that's what Dad told Mom what it was."

Since the move the Lawndale, and some advice from Jake Morgendorffer, the Yeager's little business was humming along quite nicely indeed.

"Though I'll be driving the old VW once I get my license." Ethan reminded himself, dreading dealing with that old piece of junk.

His parents were silent as they drove away from Lawndale High, having picked up their son right after school since the drive to the Cove would be a long one.

Everything was already packed, and the best of the Beatles was playing at a decent level, a good compromise since everyone in the Yeager clan loved the Beatles.

Beyond that there was significant division between Ethan and his parents about music, since his parents were slavishly devoted to the tunes of the Sixties and Seventies.

Ethan had a much broader range that went from Classical to the angriest Heavy Metal that existed.

At some point that Ethan couldn't remember he fell asleep in the car, but was awaked with a jolt and got to see the Cove for the first time.

"Ritzy." Ethan thought to himself as the Volvo moved through the main gate and into the private community getaway for the obscenely rich.

* * *

The Sloanes apparently had decided to greet the Yeagers at the front entrance of their getaway home which, to Ethan at least, looked like a mini-palace imported from Pride and Prejudice.

"Sar… Willow." Kay said warmly as the Yeager clan reached the top of the steps.

"Kay." Willow answered in turn and gave her sister a hug, which was returned by Kay, Ethan noted that it was awkward for both of them.

"An unusual occurrence, normally Mom would hug anyone, even the Devil and love every minute of it." He thought to himself before taking note of the other Sloanes.

The patriarch of the clan, Angier Sloane was an older man and was wearing the ugliest sweater that Ethan had ever seen.

His aunt, Kay Sloane was dressed as though she expected to be playing tennis at any minute, the same with the daughter, Elsie Sloane or something like that.

But the son, now he looked interesting.

"Average looking clothes that could have been picked up at the same thrift store as my stuff…" Ethan noted, "Plus he doesn't seem stuck up or spoiled… Is it possible that there is someone… cool here?"

As polite greetings were given out, Ethan got a chance to speak to the guy and introduce himself.

"Hey I'm Ethan."

"Tom." The guy answered.

"So Tom, is there anything to do around here that's interesting?"

"If only," Tom replied, "This is a place that has been thoroughly scanned in advance to ensure that the old rich people that come here won't be bothered by anything that would disrupt the 'idle' part of 'idle rich'."

"Makes me wish I had brought a flare gun or something…" Ethan answered with a sardonic grin.

Tom laughed and replied once more, "Well unless you brought your own supplies, all there is to do around here is _talk _to other people."

"Oh God, perish the thought of social interaction." Ethan stated ironically, "But I guess as long as there is at least one oasis in the desert then I can survive."

"Funny I was thinking something similar." Tom replied with a sense of relief, sensing that this might be his first trip to the Cove that would be… interesting.

* * *

Great Aunt Mildred von Trier (nee. Sloane) was extremely old, but how old was impossible to tell, she clearly had had plastic surgery, plus her very retro attire made an exact guess impossible to tell.

Then she opened her mouth.

"I guess she's kept alive by spite." Ethan thought to himself as his distant great Aunt began to speak.

"It's so good to finally meet my lovely Kay's sister." Mildred said with false sweetness, while her wizened eyes took in the Yeagers.

To be fair, Coyote and Willow had dressed to impress, but within the context of 'Hippie', which meant that they were wearing new clean clothes and that was the end of 'impress'.

Willow was wearing a long, flowing yellow-orange summer dress, nice shoes, and wore a sunflower in her hair.

Coyote was wearing his best pants, tied-dyed shirt, shoes, and had trimmed his mustache.

Ethan had only bothered to wear shoes with socks, other than that he was wearing one of his usual black shirts and jeans, and he had kept the earrings in.

But never the less, Ethan played along and gave a polite hello and felt very dirty for some reason, he glanced at Tom and the other Sloanes who were getting much more sincere greetings and hoped to the God he didn't believe in that the weekend would go by quickly.

Then he heard a door open and suspected that there were more Sloanes about the crawl out of the woodwork.

Tom Sloane caught Ethan's gaze after he extracted himself from Aunt Mildred's tentacles and nodded his head slightly towards another door, Ethan Yeager didn't need to be told twice and snuck out with Tom before things got worse.

* * *

"So on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the highest, how much does this place suck to you?" Ethan asked with theatric gesture towards the various 'get-away' homes of the Cove.

"I'd have to give it a 5 for the scenery, throw in the residents then it would be a 12." Tom answered without a trace of irony.

But it still made them both chuckle.

Then to change the subject, Ethan asked Tom about the rest of the Sloane family and who was going to be there that weekend.

"Well since it's just a weekend affair, Grandfather and Grandmother Sloane won't be gracing us with their presence. Uncle Michael apparently has issues at the office so he's just sending my… _Our_ cousin Tristan as a representative." Tom had forgotten that he was related to Ethan, but Ethan just shrugged it off.

"It's ok man, this is all new to me too."

Tom gave a small smile at that and continued, "Tristan is… well…"

"An arrogant, spoiled brat who looks down on everyone that doesn't have right looks, height, muscle, money, blood, and everything else." A voice called out from behind them and Ethan turned to see a shorter than normal teenager running up to catch up.

"Oh hey Pee Wee." Tom said with a cheeky grin and then dodged a fake punch from the kid.

"Oh Ethan, this is my guest for the weekend, Stephen Pierson-Wells II, but everyone just calls him Pee Wee."

"And I don't like it either." Stephen replied, "Not even from you Tom."

Ethan cracked a smile and said, "Hey man, I'll spare you Pee Wee if you'll let me call you Steve."

Stephen chuckled and said, "Sure, but who are you?"

Tom then apologized and said, "This is the cousin I told you about."

"Oh." Stephen said quietly and then after a pause tried to move on with, "Well I hope you brought stuff to distract yourself with, because otherwise there is nothing but old people and us to talk to."

Ethan Yeager's smile grew bigger and he answered with, "Well I brought a couple books, some music, my sketch pad, and… some other stuff."

"You draw?" Tom asked with his curiosity piqued.

"Yup." Ethan replied with some pride, "I'll show you some of it if you'd like."

"Cool," Tom said, "But we'll have to get back, otherwise I think Aunt Mildred will send out security to find us."

* * *

By the time the trio returned to the Sloane's summer residence, the rest of the Sloane clan that was going to come had already arrived.

"And thank God it's just Aunt Sibylla and Tristan," Tom thought to himself, "Otherwise I think the Yeagers would be eaten alive."

As it was from the disheveled looks on Coyote and Willow's faces they had clearly been put through a meat grinder.

While Ethan went over to his parents, Tom slipped by his mother's side and whispered a hurried suggestion that the Yeagers be shown to their rooms to get ready for dinner.

"I'll go with Ethan." Tom added, trying to make it seem as though he was just doing something nice without any other motive.

"Oh that's ok Tom," Kay Sloane whispered to her son, "In fact it's the reason we're all here, to bond and heal… old wounds."

Tom gave his mother a quick, comforting look and pat and slipped away towards Ethan just as his mother began to speak, suggesting that her sister and her husband might like to freshen up before dinner.

A suggestion that Willow and Coyote practically leapt on and were visibly relieved as they followed one of the servants away from the interrogation chamber.

Ethan in the meanwhile felt like he was breaking out of a prison as he followed Tom and Stephen towards wherever they were going to lodge, not noticing that Tristan was following in their wake.

Though it did click in Ethan's head once they reached the room that he would be sharing it with Stephen.

"Well at least it's not with that Tristan character." Ethan thought to himself as he heard the preppy rich boy speak to Tom once more in very loud tones about 'disreputable characters'.

Stephen Pierson-Wells II was kind enough to shut the door behind him, cutting out the sound of the snob.

"This is going to get worse before it's get better isn't it." Ethan said to no one in particular as he set his bags down on the bed.

Stephen gave him a sympathetic look and replied, "At least you're not sharing a room with him, I had to endure that once and that was enough for me."

* * *

A little later, after Ethan had unpacked some things, Tom Sloane had joined them and then shut the door behind him and breathed a very loud sigh of relief.

"I swear he is getting worse by the minute." Tom muttered as he sat down on the floor next to Ethan and Stephen.

Ethan had broken out his CD player and had the Nine Inch Nails album 'The Downward Spiral' playing at a low volume. It had been fun introducing the nice preppy kid to music outside of his comfort zone, the look of sheer terror on his face had been priceless and now he was grooving right along to it.

"Hey Tom, we're fine but how are you?" Ethan said with a smile that said butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Tom laughed at that and said, "Now that I'm here, better by the minute."

The three of them then spent the next few minutes getting to know each other a bit, Ethan learned that the two of them went to Fielding Prep, and that they were part of a rag tag clique that were the 'rebels' of the school.

"I have a feeling that 'rebel' might be purely a matter of perspective." Ethan snarked lightly, causing both Stephen and Tom to laugh.

Ethan then told them a little bit about himself, "Well I grew up with my parents floating from commune to commune, until they settled in a small town in Illinois, but we moved a few months ago to Lawndale for my dad's business."

"And what does he do?" Stephen asked out of polite curiosity.

"He and Mom make stuff out of hemp."

Stephen laughed until he realized that Ethan wasn't kidding.

Tom filled the awkward silence with a question about life at Lawndale High.

"Well I was the pariah until I came to Lawndale," Ethan said, "Now I seem to have quite a few friends, I think I have a couple pictures somewhere…"

Ethan then dug out a small envelope out of his bags and found a couple snapshots.

"This is at the lunch table, there's Bob with the blue hair, his girlfriend's Angel and Burnout, Angels' got the big hair, the big Goth chick is Andrea, the kid that looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo we all just call Shaggy…" Ethan then realized he didn't know Shaggy's real name.

"But next to him is his girlfriend Kelly, she's wearing the floppy hat, and next to her is… Josh." Ethan said the last with some warmth but decided not to explain things further for the moment.

Stephen didn't notice the pause, but Tom did, but he said nothing as Ethan continued.

"The girl in the preppy clothes is Brooke, she just came over for the picture, and at the far end of the table is Jane and Daria, Jane's the one making the face."

Tom's gaze seemed to linger on Daria and Jane and he commented, "They seem a bit isolated from the rest."

"Yeah…" Ethan reluctantly admitted, "But that's by choice, they're more my friends than anyone else's at the table."

"Ah…" Both Tom and Stephen breathed before there was a knock at the door and then it opened a few seconds later to reveal Tristan who said in a pretty snotty tone.

"We're expected for dinner, don't be late."

* * *

The food being served for dinner was delicious and that was the best thing that could be said about the entire experience.

Everything else just plain sucked.

Ethan noticed that Kay and his mother were forcing small talk and at the same time trying to force themselves to stick to small talk. While Angier Sloane was chatting away with Mildred about how well his company was doing and bragging without quite bragging about this year's ridiculous purchases.

"Makes me yearn for the past of communal simplicity." Ethan thought while playing with his peas, he hated peas.

Ethan noticed that Tristan, Tom, and Stephen were masters of the art of not paying attention while making look like they were.

Elsie Sloane was having an involved conversation with Sibylla about her newborn son, Alasdair, who was in a baby seat and making the most vile sounds and smells that Ethan had ever heard or smelled come from an infant.

Then through the din of stuck up elitism Ethan heard the cutting voice of Aunt Mildred call out, "And what about your sister's child dear Kay, Ethan was it? I'd like to ask him a few questions…"

Ethan sighed inwardly and readied himself for his _auto-da-fe _and wondered if he should bother to pray despite being an atheist.

* * *

Time seemed to slow down to a trickle as each grating syllable from Great Aunt Mildred von Trier emerged from her demonic throat like a siren from Satan's bowels.

"And what fine young lady are you paying court too?" She asked while readying another bite of the very fine mutton, reaching the question that Ethan had been hoping to dance around for at least a night or two.

Ethan purposely waited until she was putting it into her mouth, while thinking, "Time to try and flat line this snobby BITCH!"

"_His _name is Josh Decker." Ethan answered matter-of-factly, as though he was discussing the weather.

Then he got to enjoy looks of outrage on Tristan and Syblla's faces, shock on Kay and Angier's, and the pleasure of having nearly killed Great Aunt Mildred as she began to choke to death on her mutton while the other Sloane's tried to process what Ethan Yeager had just said.

Ethan glanced at the younger members of the clan and noticed that while Stephen seemed a bit stunned, and Elsie was rushing to her aunt, Tom was taking this all in with a very small smile.

But it was a smile.

Ethan then took a bite out of the mutton and relished every single tingle on his taste buds.

* * *

"Well I think this weekend ended before it began." Ethan said aloud to Stephen as Tom and his sister Elsie entered the room.

"Oh don't worry about that," Tom said with his face now covered in a shit-eating-grin, "It's not every day that Aunt Mildred is actually faced with the Grim Reaper."

"Yeah, we've been expecting her to outlive us all by at least a century." Elsie added, revealing that she could hang with the best of the snarkers.

"You guys are taking it better than I expected." Ethan conceded, "I'm impressed."

"Thanks!" was the general cry of the three other's in the room.

"Now what?" Ethan asked, nearly killing the mood until Stephen boldly asked Ethan to dig through his music collection for something, anything, that was outside the norm.

Ethan gave a wicked smile and said, "You've got it Steve."

* * *

Within an hour, Ethan had played several mixed CDs containing what he considered to be the best of the best of various forms of Rock, and yes Johnny Cash counted as 'Rock' in Ethan Yeager's opinion, just because he was Johnny Cash.

And as soon as they finished singing along to 'A Boy Named Sue', all four of them fell over laughing, which ensured that they didn't hear the door open and Tristan entering to try and ruin their good time.

"Hm…" The preppy boy sniffed at the lot of them once he had gotten their attention, "And what perversions is our… _relative _leading you into?" Tristan said the word relative like an obscenity.

"Oh we were about to have an orgy." Tom said as plainly as he could.

"Speak for yourself; us lower-class types don't do the inbreeding thing." Ethan retorted jokingly.

"Well Pee Wee isn't any of our direct relation…" Elsie mused, piling on.

"I'll flip you for him, heads or tails?" Ethan jumped right on.

"You get one end and I'll take the other." Elsie replied.

"Hey what about me?! Don't I get a say in this?" Stephen asked, not quite sure if anyone was serious or not but deciding to plunge forward and see what happened next.

"What about you?!" Tom, Ethan, and Elsie all said at once, and then all three laughed at their synchronized snark.

Tristan, having been effectively shut down, made his first wise decision of the evening and left the room before anything worse was uttered.

* * *

Willow Yeager stood in the shadows, having wanted to go and comfort her son, but hearing the laugher and seeing the snotty brat flee in retreat made her have second thoughts.

But as she turned to depart, a very familiar figure emerged and an equally familiar voice spoke.

"Willow?"

"Yes Kay?"

"I… I'm sorry about what happened at dinner."

"I know you are and I know you didn't mean for any of that to happen, but it happened."

Willow then raised a hand just as Kay Sloane tried to speak, "No sis, I need you to listen for the moment."

Willow Yeager then took a deep, calming breath and called upon everything she had ever been taught about peace and tranquility, and took the plunge into the dark depths of the past.

"It happened, just like me meeting my husband, Coyote at Woodstock, it happened like you meeting him and us and saying how happy you were for us, how much you wanted us to be happy…"

"Me to be happy."

"Willow, I…" Kay tried to interject, but Willow cut her off.

"Then when I introduced him to our parents, and they… they… did what they did… and I asked you for help… you wilted…"

"You abandoned me to the wolves, saying that 'father knew best' and 'listen to mother Sarah', well you know what Kay? I listened and what they had to say was vile and they demanded that I abandon Coyote, never see him again, and marry 'properly' as they saw it."

Willow then took another calming breath, felt the white-hot tears on her face, but ignored them.

"Then I realized that they were wrong, because if I went with Coyote, struck out on my own without so much as a penny to my name that I would have a loved one that they could _never _take away."

"And you know what? I was right Kay. I was right."

Kay Sloane had been rendered speechless by her sister's calmly spoken, yet passionately felt speech, the words clearly things she had been yearning to say for years.

"I have my husband, I have my son, and they love me as much as I love them, and I can see that your husband loves you and your children love you too Kay, and for that I'm happy for you."

"Willow… I'm so sorry for what I did… I wish I could take it back, I just… I failed you… I… I… I _fucked up_!"

Now it was Willow's turn to be stunned, her sister _Kay swearing?!_

"Yes, I can say bad words too." Kay said answering the unspoken question.

There was a long silence at that until, and neither sister was sure who started it; they started to chuckle, which then grew into full blown laughter.

* * *

Angier Sloane glanced up from his nightly reading as his wife slipped into their allotted bedroom for the trip.

"Kay where were…?" He began to ask before his wife simply kissed him and said, "Making a start at fixing things."

Angier knew better than to ask for elaboration at that point, in fact his wife had spoken to him about her estranged sister on a number of occasions in the past, and within the last month when they learned that she had relocated so close to their home.

"It's going to be a long road ahead for them both." Angier Sloane thought to himself as he took in his wife's countenance, which was heavily drained and yet slightly glad at the same time.

"But you have to start at a beginning and then go forward."

* * *

Ethan Yeager sat in the back of his parents Volvo as they departed the Cove early in the morning, and much earlier than initially planned, in his pocket were the numbers for Tom & Elsie Sloane, and Steve.

In his hands was a copy of a short story Daria had handed out to some people at lunch, asking them to read it and then give her their honest opinions, it was titled 'Depth Takes a Holiday'.

"He he he…" Ethan laughed as he got to the part where he and Josh tried to help the spirit of Thanksgiving come out to his family during dinner.

"Thanksgiving asks his mother to hand a gay man the mashed potatoes, she gives them to his dad."

In the front of the car, Willow also had a number in her pocket, and back at the Cove, Kay Sloane had one as well, even while she was tuning out Mildred ranting about filth and perversion and faggotry.

"Just die already you crone." Kay thought to herself, almost trying to will Mildred's very timely death with her thoughts.

* * *

"What the fuck?!" Ethan breathed, stunned to the core by the amount of chaos he had missed while at the Cove for just a night.

"And that's not all," Josh Decker informed him, "Jane Lane quit the track team right then and there after the big win, saying that they were trying to turn her into something she wasn't it. Whatever that means…"

"How'd she get away with it?"

"She had some major blackmail on Coach Morris and Ms. Li according to the rumor mill."

"And Robert _and _Ted came out to their folks?!"

"Yup."

"How'd the rents take it?"

"Robert's depressed that his Dad called him a disappointment, but at least his Mom was cool with it."

"What about Ted?"

"His parents kicked him out."

"Oh God…"

"Yeah… But he's staying with an aunt and still in Lawndale."

"Cool… But how's the school reacting?"

"Better than expected, Rex isn't even giving them trouble… In fact… He's been hanging around Bob and his three girlfriends."

"Wait, _three_ girlfriends?"

"Well Sandi Griffin's been around them enough I guess she's dating him too… Or it could be that no one else will take her in. Not sure about that one."

"What about Daria?"

"Oh she's going to be out of the hospital in a day or two, the redness is almost gone but they'll probably need to keep her under observation, her weekend is effectively shot."

"Bummer…" Ethan muttered while fingering the numbers he had gotten at the Cove, "But I think I've met some cool people for her to meet Monday night…"

**THE END**

* * *

_Notes: Some lines taken from 'See Jane Run' and 'Write Where It Hurts'. The characters Stephen Pierson-Wells II and the extended Sloane family (minus the Yeagers of course) were borrowed from 'God Save the Esteem'._


	4. Chapter 4: Power to the Snark

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 4 Power to the Snark**

"Compared to what you had to put up with during the big storm, I think me and Josh got off lucky." Ethan Yeager answered once Daria and Jane both finished their adventure tale of angst woe.

"Yea," Josh Decker added with a grin, "Neither one of us had to put up with Brittany and Kevin. In an enclosed space for several hours."

"Fine, rub it in." Daria replied, still trying to defrag her brain from coping with the pure stupid that Kevin Thompson and Brittany Taylor seemed to generate just by existing.

"I have to admit that I'm still impressed that Trent and your Dad were willing to risk life, limb, and the Lexus into order to find us." Jane noted as an afterthought.

"Families are like that." Daria added and then blushed when she realized what she had said without thinking.

Everyone else in the room smiled at that and Ethan couldn't resist asking, "So does that mean that Daria is a Lane, or is Jane a Morgendorffer?"

Both girls couldn't resist a smile and Daria said, "Maybe it's a little bit of both."

Josh then glanced at his CD player and changed out the music to something a little more rock n' roll, he looked at Ethan and asked about when he was going to introduce them to his cousins.

Ethan laughed ruefully and said, "Well I hope that no one I know ever meets Tristan, he's a complete horse's ass and I only dealt with him for a few hours."

"Tom and Elsie on the other hand… Hmm… I'll have to make a few calls, maybe we can meet at the coffee shop, there's no way I'd risk taking rich kids to the Zon."

Ethan then expanded on that, "Well I guess Tom could fit right in, not sure about Elsie, and they wanted me to meet more of their friends at Fielding."

"You said that Steve guy was nice." Josh reminded his boyfriend gently.

"Yeah, but nice doesn't equal 'able to handle Zon'." Ethan answered with a small grin.

"You'd just have to wash the posh off 'em first." Jane snarked, "And remind them not to brag about their stock options while sniffing coke off the toilets."

"Jane Lane I'm shocked." Daria said in mock outrage, "You'd let such high class personages as the Sloanes to sniff coke off of a plebs privy?"

"No," Jane answered, "I wouldn't want to sully the Zon's toilets like that."

"Now there's a statement I never thought I'd live to hear." Ethan muttered.

* * *

"I just don't know what to do now, man." Rex Attor whined while brushing his auburn hair out of his eyes.

Bob Sorenson, he of the blue hair, ragged clothes, and tattoos, couldn't resist a little snark.

"Well no offense but you're the first guy that's come out to me."

Rex gave a small chuckle but continued with, "That's true I guess, but… I'm lost and you're like, the only one that I've told."

"Well I'm no expert man, but you've clearly taken the first steps, you've admitted that you are Gay." Bob noticed that while Rex flinched and looked around nervously, he didn't fly into denial like he used to.

"Relax man, there's no one on this stretch of sidewalk besides us."

Rex breathed an audible sigh of relief.

"I'd say you need to start making some amends, apologize to people you've given a hard time and go from there."

Rex was silent while taking this in, but he did eventually nod his head and said, "Ok."

Bob gave the football player a small smile and patted him on the back and said, "Good, now was there anything else serious you wanted to chat about?"

Rex took in another deep breath and said, "I'm sorry… About Zon."

Bob laughed at that and said, "Don't worry about it, you were drunk, thought I was hot, and flirted, kinda flattering really… Now that I'm not in the moment."

Even Rex couldn't resist a smile and a chuckle at that, "Yeah man… I guess what a… _gay guy _wants is kinda what chicks want." Rex had made some visible effort to force the words 'gay' and 'guy' out of his mouth.

"I've got no trouble in that department." Bob replied with a wistful look and his thoughts turning towards his two girlfriends, Angel and Burnout.

"No troubles at all…"

* * *

"So, like, according to Mom's Last Will and Testament, in any of the circumstances listed, while Father, will manage the money when we are kids, but when we become adults it's all ours?" Sandi asked Helen Morgendorffer while she reviewed the copy of Linda Griffin's will.

"Yes Sandi," Helen replied as calmly as she could, "Your mother clearly didn't trust your father with her money any further than she absolutely had too."

"And with good reason." Sandi's inner voice whispered too her.

Sandi glanced about her living room, even she noticed the irony that while her mother and Quinn's mother hadn't liked each other, Linda had at least trusted Helen's integrity enough to entrust her with helping to handle her affairs in emergency situations.

Like her untimely death for example.

"The full list of assets is on the last three pages Sandi," Helen informed the girl, "You can read it at your leisure."

Sandi then took a sip of water and sat the glass back down on the coaster on the coffee table in front of her.

"Thank you Miss. Morgendorffer," Sandi said quietly, "For taking the time to explain all this to me on such short notice, I'll try to arraign for payment as soon as possible."

"Oh no Sandi," Helen said with a dismissive wave, "This private consultation is _pro bono _in my book."

"Thank you." Sandi said weakly and very gratefully.

Helen patted the girl on the shoulder, the events that had transpired since that dark day had clearly taken a toll on the Griffin girl.

Sandi then sucked in a breath and said, almost to herself, "I'm glad Mother had all this set up ahead of time, because if that… woman. If she thought that she could, like, get her hands on all that cash through Father, then I, like, don't doubt she would have."

Helen Morgendorffer wisely said nothing, having already heard the gossip about Tom Griffin's whirlwind affair with Evelyn Jericho and the massive meltdown a few days later.

"The money has been put into different trusts," Helen explained simply, "One for you and two for your brothers, once you turn eighteen Sandi the trust will be yours, the same for your brothers. Until then… You'll be living on your Father's salary."

Sandi brushed a strand of pink hair from her face and said, "That's ok, Father makes good money and I, think, the house is paid for… He should be ok as long as… Nevermind."

Helen once more showed wisdom by saying nothing.

* * *

Jodie Landon, the model daughter of the Landon family, the one that was the President of countless student organizations and was being pushed to her outer limits by her parents for that one extra push needed to get into the tops schools, glanced at the materials that she had been asked to gather and handed them to her boyfriend Michael Jordan Mackenzie, or Mack to everyone else.

"Please don't ask me to run this if you do get it off the ground and past Ms. Li's muster." His overworked girlfriend begged to him.

Mack laughed at that and said, "Don't worry about it Jodie, besides I'm not sure that your parents would be cool with you as 'President of the Lawndale Gay/Straight Alliance'."

It was Jodie's turn to laugh at that, "Yeah, yeah, but I'll join as a regular member, once it's official."

Mack nodded at that while flipping through some of the information, "Well I'll have to talk to Robert & Ted, not to mention Ethan and Josh, but at this point it's obvious that Lawndale needs something where we can… You know… Build bridges; make people feel more comfortable with being themselves."

"I mean while everyone _seems _ok on the surface, I've seen the looks that Ethan and Josh have gotten, the whispered words, and now with Robert and Ted a couple… You do remember what I told you?"

"Yeah…" Jodie replied.

"I had to pull out all the stops to keep the team from freaking out when Robert first showed up after his big debut, but they did come around when Robert was just… Himself."

"A nice but not very intelligent member of the human race?" Jodie supplied.

Mack grinned at that, "I'll give you that, but hey, it worked right?"

* * *

"So how's the guitar playing coming along Josh?" Brooke Tanner asked after finishing her low-fat milk, having brought her own lunch.

"Well according to Trent, pretty damm good." Josh Decker answered, earning a smile from both Brooke and (more importantly) his boyfriend Ethan.

Daria Morgendorffer thought of something snarky to say, but a glance at Jane made her rethink saying it, but her brain was telling her that praise from Trent about music was a dodgy business at best.

Instead she stayed quiet until the conversation turned to the topic that was now dominating most people in their grade, driver's licenses and learner's permits.

Shaggy boasted about already having his license, until Kelly reminded him that the reason he had it was because, like Kevin Thompson and Sandi Griffin, he had been held back a year in Middle School and should be a grade ahead of them.

An awkward silence filled the table until Ethan decided to break it by revealing that he couldn't get his license until next year.

"Why?" Brooke asked, genuinely confused.

"Ethan skipped 8th grade back at his old school." Josh answered for her, "He just turned 15 a couple months before moving to Lawndale."

"How'd you know that?" Kelly began to ask before hitting herself and saying, "Nevermind, dumb question."

In a few more moments everybody learned that while they all had their learner's permits, that Daria was having issues learning to drive due to her eyesight.

"My mom is bringing up the issue of contacts again." Daria added with an annoyed sigh.

"She just doesn't get it does she." Jane Lane noted with a wise nod.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daria asked.

"You!" Jane said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, "The whole Daria package, that you wear glasses and won't ever apologize for it."

Daria nodded her head at that and replied, "True, but… Due to the frames I have trouble seeing things off to the side, which is bad for things coming up while I'm driving… I almost killed a dog during my lesson with Mom."

"Working your way up to humans?" Andrea asked with false innocence.

"Should we tell Quinn that you killed him?" Ethan asked as well, getting everyone to give a small chuckle, even Brooke.

"Maybe instead of contacts you should just get different frames." Josh suggested a little later.

"Maybe…" Daria said, mostly to herself and then grew quiet the rest of lunch period.

* * *

Rex Attor spotted Ethan and Josh on their usual route back home and yelled out, "Hey Ethan wait up I need to talk to you."

Both boys turned to face the infamous homophobe heading up to them as fast as he could without actually running, readying themselves for a fight.

Rex surprised them by stopping when he came within a couple of feet and said, "Did I spook you? Sorry about that, it's just…" He trailed off and took a deep breath, trying his best to pass it off as being winded.

It didn't fool either one of them.

"You wanted to… talk right?" Ethan said quietly, "So, talk."

"I just wanted to say… I'm sorry." Rex said in a very subdued tone, "For all the crap I tried to put you through."

That was one of the last things either one of them had ever expected to hear from Rex, Ethan and Josh were trying to come up with a response while Rex continued.

"I'm trying to work on… my attitude and junk, you know, become a better person. I'm trying to apologize to people I've harmed, my… therapist suggested it."

Josh raised an eyebrow and asked, "You're in the therapy?"

Rex then stammered, "Well… no, but Bob… I mean the guy I'm talking to suggested some stuff for the… issues I'm going through."

Ethan couldn't resist asking, "What issues?"

"I… um… I'm not ready to talk about it… See you later!" Rex said in a rush before running very fast in the opposite direction.

"Curiouser and curiouser…" Ethan mused aloud to himself at the fleeing figure, Josh glanced at him but said nothing, seeing the wheels turning in his boyfriend's head.

* * *

"Oh no it's not a bother at all… Mack was it? Yes once Ethan gets home I'll tell him, bye!" the cheery voice of Willow Yeager said over the phone before she hung up.

"What was that about dear?" Coyote Yeager asked from the living room, pretending to go over some business papers but really just reading the newspaper.

"Some boy from school called, wanting to talk to Ethan about starting a club, but he wouldn't tell me anything else about it."

"Oh." Coyote said to himself before turning back to the sports section, fully confident that whatever it was wouldn't be anything major.

* * *

"And Terry a word of caution." Tom Sloane added to his flamboyant friend while everyone else went on ahead.

"Yeah Pope?" Terry Wicklemore replied, his portly jowls dancing as he spoke.

"When and if you do meet my cousin, try not to hit on him too hardcore, kay?"

"Why, is he some big jerk like your other cousin?"

"No man," Tom began before trailing off, remembering that Stephen was actually upholding his end of the bargain and hadn't spread the news of events at the Cove.

"Well what?" Terry asked, now curious as hell and set to work on cracking Tom.

It only took a few minutes to coax the story out of him, and to get a big laugh out of the most flamboyant of the flamboyant at Fielding Prep.

"Don't worry Tom," Terry said with a big laugh and a smile, "I'll respect your monogamous cousin… Unless he's super cute, then his boyfriend better watch out, cus I'm a man-stealer!"

The two of them then laughed at that, which drew the attention of some passersby, but the outlier group that Tom ran with was long used to ignoring most of the people in their school.

"We need to catch back up," Tom said once he had control of himself, "Otherwise we'll be late again."

* * *

Sandi Griffin looked at her latest handiwork with a sense of pride, it had taken a couple of weeks to find everything needed, but now her once fashionably decorated room resembled something quite different.

"Good girl gone _very bad_" Sandi said to herself, noting on how the elements of old preppy her and the new, rocker girl her, mixed rather well together, in a twisted sort of way.

She then glanced at the list of bands that Bob had suggested she listen too, some of them she hated, but there were a few that she had grown to like.

Sandi glanced at the mirror, having touched up her pink & blue hair, "Maybe a piercing or two… I'll give it some more thought."

She picked a CD at random and put it in the player and pushed play, and in a few moments the Sex Pistols filled the room with…

"_God save the queen/ The fascist regime/ They made you a moron/ Potential H-bomb…"_

"I like, have to admit that I like this…" Sandi said to herself and began to dance to it, not realizing that her bedroom door had creaked open and her curious brothers popped their heads in.

"When did Sandi become _cool?_" Sam asked himself as he watched his sister dance to some pretty impressive music.

"We have _got _to get our hands on that CD." Chris told his brother, the music keeping his voice from being heard by Sandi, rocking out blissfully to the music that inspired a generation before her.

"No future! No future! No future!" Sandi began singing along to the song and began to headbang for the first time in her entire life.

* * *

Angela Li, the Principal of Laaaandallle High went through her latest correspondence from the Superintendent of Schools and took special care to note a 'request' that Laaaandalllle High participate in an 'Awareness of Other's' Week.

"100% Participation by the student body will earn a special commendation." Ms. Li noted, almost squealing with glee at the thought of bringing glory to her personal empire.

"I just need to make it 'mandatory' without it being official and I'll be golden!" She said to herself while going through the list of suggested 'Volunteer Work' that the students could do the make her… She meant the school look good!

* * *

"Procrastination is the enemy that will force us to clean up roadkill." Ethan said in a monotone sing-song voice, reminding his boyfriend and his two girls that were his friends, but not girlfriends, as they approached the wall that was covered in sign-up sheets.

"I still say that people should volunteer because they believe in something, not because it makes the school look good." Daria muttered, still miffed at Ms. Li's proclamation from above.

"True…" Josh said vacantly while going through the possible choices for week-long torture… I mean volunteering.

"Well besides the Roadkill, there's Internships at Congressman Sack's office, reading to old people, planting flowers at the park, arts and crafts at the children's ward…" Josh trailed off as Jane Lane practically bum-rushed the wall, snatched a pen dangling from string and signed herself up.

"Oh crap guys!" She said once she noticed the lack of remaining slots, "There's only one other slot left for that."

"I'll stick with the roadkill." Daria said quietly, passing on arts and crafts.

"I'll let Ethan do the art's thing, since he's a better drawer than me." Josh offered and earned a grateful smile from Ethan who signed up… And then read the _whole _list and realized to his horror who else was doing it.

"Uh… Jane." Ethan said quietly, his voice filled with fear, "Don't look at the name above ours…"

Jane looked anyway and then blanched in horror herself.

Daria took one look and said, "Methinks we dodged a bullet Josh."

Josh looked and then laughed, "Oh crap indeed, you'll be doing that with Kevin!"

Daria glanced at the other possible jobs and signed up for the internship, and then realized she also forgot to check the damm names.

"Well I'll be working with Mack, Jodie (big surprise), and… Brittany." She sighed out the last name with the kind of weariness that only comes from dealing with complete nitwits.

Josh decided to spare himself anymore suffering and signed up to plant flowers at the park.

* * *

Thankfully the rest of the day passed without incident, which allowed Ethan to get back home quickly and make two phone calls, one to Mack, but he got Mr. Mackenzie instead and was forced to ask him to let Mack know that he called back.

The other call was to his mother's side of the family, the Sloanes, and after dealing with a servant, Ethan managed to get Tom on the line.

"Hey Tom, you want to meet up sometime?"

"Sure, where?"

"Probably the coffeehouse in Lawndale would be the safe bet, you know first meetings and all, not sure if your guys can handle the places I normally hangout, since I haven't met them and all."

"Doesn't that imply that you think that I can handle them?"

"Yes it does Master Thomas." Ethan said with lighthearted mockery.

"Well I do aim to impress."

"Well you available today? Cus our school is forcing us to do volunteer work this week and this is the last day of not having to care."

"Ouch!"

"Pray for us."

* * *

"Did you hear what happened to the Style Goons?" Angel asked sagely while lounging on Bob's living room love seat.

Three "What's?" filled the room, and Angel answered with, "They tried to talk Ms. Li into letting them run a clothing drive for the homeless, but she shut them down, saying that she didn't trust their competence in actually getting any clothes for the less fortunate!"

This elicited an impressive set of hearty laughs from Bob Sorenson, his other girlfriend Burnout, and Sandi Griffin (not a girlfriend, just a friend).

"And since they just assumed that they'd get their way, they were all forced to sign up for the only thing left, cleaning up roadkill!"

"Ouch!" Sandi said with a laugh, clearly not feeling Quinn Morgendorffer's pain.

"At least planting flowers at the park won't involve dead things…" Burnout drawled, clearly already feeling the effects of the blunt she had smoked earlier.

A voice roared in Sandi's head, one that screamed about broken nails, dirt, physical labor, the HORROR!

But that voice sounded a lot like her mother, who was now dead, and that driving force had lost a lot of power for Sandi Griffin.

"And besides," A smaller, quieter voice whispered once the roar was gone, "Burnout is, like, right, you won't be dealing with roadkill."

Things were starting to look up.

* * *

The overwhelming smell of coffee beans hit Ethan Yeager full force as he entered Lawndale's premier coffee house, the 'Coffee Snob'.

"Yum…" Ethan moaned like a man dying of thirst, having reached an oasis in the desert.

Josh however looked repulsed, he hated coffee with a violent passion, one only matched by his dual desires for Ethan Yeager and a good old fashioned can of Ultra Cola.

"Can we find your other family and go outside before I puke?" Josh asked of his boyfriend as they scanned the shop, and then Ethan noticed a familiar face in the back.

"Hey Tom!" Ethan called out and waved, catching the attention of a guy in the plainest clothes that Josh had ever seen.

The pair went over to the table where Tom was sitting with three other guys, who turned out to be Stephen Pierson-Wells (Steve), Terry Wicklemore, and Patrick Hackney VII (Pat Seven).

"And this must be the infamous Ethan Yeager and Josh Decker." Terry noted once Tom finished introducing the Fielding guys to his cousin and his significant other.

"You've heard of me." Josh said in a deadpan, his eyes opening mockingly wide in shock.

"I got the scoop from Tom, though Pat might need an update." Terry said, not able to resist giving the two lanky, athletic, cuties his best smile.

"What I miss?" Pat asked, and then felt his mouth fall open slightly as Ethan and Josh sat down while Tom related the news from The Cove.

"You should close your mouth, your letting flies in." Ethan said dryly once Tom finished talking.

At that Pat snapped out of his stupor and laughed a little, "Now _that _is impressive, just a few hours in and already attempting the murder of kin by apoplexy. You work fast Ethan."

Ethan Yeager couldn't resist giving off a sense of pride and a small, smug, grin.

"Well enough about boring old us," Josh said, trying to bring his boyfriend down to Earth, "What about you guys? Anything interesting from the hallowed halls?"

"Define, 'interesting'." Tom said in between sips of his coffee, as plain as the snobby coffee house was willing to serve.

* * *

"Don't worry Stacy." Joey said with a supportive hug, "You've been there for me every step of the way with this, I'll be there with you for the roadkill."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" Stacy Rowe said with a delighted squeal and a big hug.

The pair were in her bedroom, though the door was left partly open to keep her parents from barging in with a bucket of cold water.

Joey Black planted a kiss on Stacy's lips, a chase one but still a kiss, and added, "I'm starting to string the words together more easily, even a few sentences are starting to make sense… Small ones but it's… Wonderful."

Stacy gave her boyfriend a very big smile and inched even closer to him, since they were seated on her bed, though (sadly in Joey's mind) fully clothed.

"If you want…" Joey said as though this wasn't something he hadn't been thinking about since Stacy broke the news to him a few hours ago in between sobs, "I can see if some of the guys on the team need to do something volunteer-wise."

Stacy squealed in delight again and would have given Joey something a bit bigger than another hug if her parents weren't home and the damm door had to be left partly open.

"I'll find a way to make it happen yet!" Stacy thought to herself, and then suppressed the nervousness in her stomach at the thought of what she had just thought of.

Then she had to suppress the feeling of wanting to puke when she remembered that tomorrow she'd be cleaning up dead skunks and junk off the side of the road.

Eww!

* * *

Quinn Morgendorffer shook some of her red locks out of her face and gave the carcass on the ground a grim look and poked it with the pointy end of the stick she had been given by that creepy old guy that was 'managing' their volunteer work.

"Pu-lease!" Quinn muttered to herself, "He's sitting in his car with a bottle of vodka, dead to the world."

Quinn looked away and took in a deep breath and steeled herself for her very first pick of the day.

"AHHH! EWW!" She roared like a wounded animal as the stick thingy pierced the belly of the dead raccoon, which caused the gasses in its stomach to blow up, and causing the maggots eating away the insides to spill out all over her new work boots.

Everyone else on the volunteer work crew got to see the Queen Bee squeal in fear and scramble away from the twisted mass of future flies that she fell on her butt and then wriggled at top speed backwards for about three feet.

Then she noticed everyone staring.

"Um…" She mumbled while some guy helped her to her feet, "That was… eww!"

"I knoooowww," Tiffany drawled from behind her, "This wholllle thiiiiing is like…. Ewwww!"

The other girls in the Style Girls Club, not to mention the guys that had signed up once they knew Quinn would be here flocked around like chicks around a mother hen to comfort her.

However at a distance away, Joey Black was alternating putting Roadkill in his and Stacy's bags respectively, Stacy was right at his side with her bag, her very demeanor full of promises she intended to fulfill for him very, very soon.

* * *

"Maybe we should have stuck with the roadkill." Daria quipped after Congressman Sacks finished his little introductory speech and left, having taken Brittany on as a 'personal secretary'.

"Yeah… The roadkill wouldn't be as sleazy." Mack added, but one look at Jodie made him add, "But I didn't have it in me to leave my Jodie to face this… alone."

"Paper shredding, coffee making, getting cozy with an actual politician… There was no way my parents would let me miss this for roadkill." Jodie mused to herself, the weariness apparent to anyone with half a brain.

"I think Brittany is going to handle the cozy part all by herself." Daria quipped before indicating that they should head towards their little torture chamber, aka the small office where they stick the temporary interns.

"Well at least we now know that there is such a thing as 'Office Dreary Design'." Daria commented at the first glance of the tiny space that would be shared by three people.

"Oh look, the paper shredder is top of the line." Jodie noted, having done this sort of thing before and had become a connoisseur of paper shredders.

"And everything else is second-hand at best." Mack muttered while looking at the dinosaur computers on offer.

Daria glanced at the 'To Be Destroyed' pile of papers and quietly wondered what kinds of dirty secrets would be learned by reading them first.

* * *

Jane Lane's Art's n Crafts for the children's ward of Cedars of Lawndale Hospital was a stunning hit with the 19 kids currently in care.

"Cool!" the child-like voice of Kevin Thompson echoed across the ward as two of the kids finished super gluing some of the cattle bones together to make some very rude words.

"I have to admit that I suspected I'd be babysitting Kevin for you all week." Ethan quietly said to Jane while they were supposed to be overseeing the kids playing with bones, auto parts, and superglue.

"Well I suppose we shouldn't be shocked that Kevin has a knack with kids, seeing how he's just an overgrown one himself." Jane said while displaying a Mona Lisa smile.

"Just don't let Daria see you stealing her trademarked grin." Ethan quipped and turning that half-smile into a full one.

"Uh… Jane, Ethan bro." Kevin called out from the other side of the room, "I think I super glued myself to this engine piston thingy."

"I spoke too soon." Ethan said with a weary sigh.

* * *

Sandi Griffin took one look at her hands and suppressed a grimace, ruined, utterly ruined, but she took in a deep breath and told herself that she'd just wear gloves until they were healed.

"But I'll have to resort to those disgusting fake nail thingy's like a twelve year old for a while." She noted, and then unable to suppress a sour face.

To make herself feel better, she glanced at the fruit of her labors, a couple of rows of pretty flowers planted along the side of a sidewalk at Lawndale's best, and only, public park.

On the other side of the sidewalk, and a few feet to the left, she noticed Ethan's boyfriend, Josh Decker digging a few small holes next to Bob.

The former Queen Bee of Lawndale High lost track of everything and just stared at him, the blue-haired kid with muscle, piercings, tattoos, shredded clothes, and a devil-may-care attitude and…

"Earth to Sandi." A voice emerged from nowhere, startling her, "The flowers won't plant themselves."

"Oh sorry, Siobhan." Sandi said in a rush to the girl with the weird hair buns, and went back to her planting.

* * *

"So Bob guess what?" Josh said while readying one of the pansies's for planting, "Rex came up to us after school to apologize for… well… Being himself."

"Really?" Bob said, pretending not to know anything about it, curious as to where this was going to go.

"And one of things that he muttered was that he was talking to someone… and he distinctly said the name 'Bob'… So I put two and two together…"

"And you came up with me." Bob finished for him, sighed and then said very carefully, "Let's just say Rex is dealing with some personal issues and I fed him some psycho-babble about self-improvement and suggested that he make amends with people he's harmed."

"Ok," Josh replied, "But what exactly has him in repentance mode?"

"I don't think it's my place to talk about it right now." Bob answered, ending that particular topic of conversation.

* * *

A little later after their first stints as volunteers were over, Josh and Ethan were relaxing in the Yeager's living room with a joint and some munchies.

"So… I was talking to Bob and… He did talk to Rex about stuff… But he wouldn't say what…" Josh drawled, the marijuana kicking in already.

"Mmm…" Ethan mused after puffing and passing the joint back, "Methinks we'll find out soon…"

"Cool…" Josh drawled before laughing at the antics of Ratboy on the Yeager's new, but small(ish) TV.

Meanwhile, unseen from the doorway to the kitchen, Willow Yeager glanced at her son and his beau and simply smiled with joy at Ethan having found someone special and went back to finish making dinner.

* * *

In his office, Congressman Leopold Sacks' eyes glazed over as he tried to read some memo about contributions from the Academy for Responsible Fuel Development (aka a major lobby for the oil industry), his thoughts filled with images of blond hair, great legs, bouncing breasts, and an ass that he hoped to God to tap as soon as possible.

"Brittany…" Congressman Sacks moaned to himself while fondling… himself.

This was going to be a very good week indeed the politician was thinking as the images came at him faster and faster.

A very good week indeed.

* * *

"Hey Jane, I know it's a bummer about how the docs reacted to the project and stuff, but I still think it rocked." Kevin said as the hospital's _entire _security staff watched them with a wary eye from the other side of the hospital's main entrance.

"Thanks Kevin," Jane Lane answered, genuinely touched (for once) by something Kevin said.

"But I still don't get why they were so uptight," Jane complained, flowing from thankfulness to annoyance, "I mean you can't depict proper Mongol Warriors without beheadings."

"Yeah," Ethan replied in deadpan, "Who would have thought that the staff preferred those insipid happy clowns."

"I know man!" Kevin said, just as flabbergasted as Jane, "Who wants clowns when you can have blood and guts and stuff!"

"Kevin that was the smartest thing you've said all year." Jane noted

"Cool!" Kevin excitedly exclaimed.

"At least we slipped the kids the voodoo doll kits before we were… uh… escorted out." Ethan commented quietly while they finally bothered to start moving away from the doors and away from the hospital.

"And I hope the kids have fun making the staff actually suffer for once." Jane said with a dark smile, rather proud of what would have been the project after the Mongol's.

"Well what will we do now that the hospital is out?" Ethan mused.

"Roadkill." Jane said while Kevin said, "Reading to Old People."

Both Jane and Ethan stared at Kevin who said, "What?"

Ethan slowly said, "Kevin I think you managed to say something wise, that's twice in one day man!"

"Cool!" Kevin exclaimed excitedly, feeling very proud that the brains had said he was smart and stuff _twice!_

* * *

"He's cute isn't he?" A voice asked from behind Sandi, shocking her out of her dreamy staring at Bob Sorenson.

"What? Oh, um… hmm… wha?" Sandi stuttered out while turning around, trying to find a way out of the situation quickly.

Josh Decker couldn't resist a grin at Griffin's discomfort, he smoothed out wrinkles in his jacket and said, "Oh come on girl, it's obvious you're crushing on Bob harder than I did with Ethan when I first talked to him."

Sandi sucked in a breath and played with her pink & blue hair nervously and said very unconvincingly, "I was just… making sure I arraigned the flowers correctly. You know, color coordination and the like…"

Josh just nodded his head and went, "Yea, Yeah… Keep telling yourself that Sandi, but when you're ready to talk, I'm willing to listen."

Sandi was silently processing this while Josh began to walk away, but then she suddenly went, "Hey wait! Why did you come over anyway?"

Josh turned around and simply said, "Ethan told me about what happened at Zon."

Sandi froze like a deer in the headlights and she almost started to shake but Josh continued with, "And I know that Bob was the one that saved you from… never mind. But like I said, if you want to talk…"

"Not here." Sandi said quietly and Josh nodded at that, "Somewhere private and not… here."

Josh simply smiled and said that he'd slip her an address later and walked away.

* * *

"It's too bad that you have such a bad back and bum knees Leo." Brittany said in her squeak while bending over to pick up some papers that the good Congressman had 'dropped'.

"Oh yesss… Terrible back problems, it sucks being old Brittany." Leopold Sacks said, emphasizing the word 'suck'.

But sadly this interlude was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps and the good Senator barely had enough time to remove his hands from his pants while Brittany finished picking up the papers in time for Daria Morgendorffer to walk in with some folders.

"Oh… Ms. Morgendorffer." Sacks said with his face flush, and thankful that the desk hid his unbuttoned state below the waist.

"Here are the files you wanted about the reelection committee." Daria said in a flat monotone as she handed him the documents and quietly left, without so much as a glance at Brittany who actually did drop the papers and was forced to bend over to pick them up again.

"Nice…" Sacks thought to himself as that plain girl left without seeing anything and leaving him with quite the view.

* * *

"Ok that certainty was an innocent scene without anything untoward happening." Daria thought to herself sarcastically.

Unfortunately for Sacks, Daria wasn't an idiot like Brittany; everything about him practically had screamed 'lusting for easy cheerleader'.

"I wonder if I can find a decent hidden camera in Ms. Li's collection of unused spy toys." Daria mused, already hard at work on a plan to catch the good politician with his hands in the cookie jar.

Or in Brittany's blouse, whatever came first.

* * *

"Hey Daria," Mack called out to Daria from nearby as she reached the interns office, "Can I talk to you in the break room?"

"Sure Mack." Daria said quietly, making a mental note to plot the destruction of a political career later.

Once they were in the pitiful rest stop, Mack poured Daria and himself cups of coffee and took a drink.

"Cheap coffee for a cheapskate." Mack noted with a grimace, Daria gave him a half-smile, which shocked Mack since he couldn't remember the last time he had seen Daria smile.

"So what's going on Mack?" Daria asked after they had finished some preliminary pleasantries.

Mack sighed, "It's Jodie, she's canceled our celebratory dinner after this is over, her parents are making her do weekend volunteer work with a soup kitchen. Again."

"That's sucks." Daria said while thinking, "This makes it number seven… right?"

Mack sighed again, "Well I know that you haven't dated… At least in Lawndale right?" Daria nodded at this and Mack continued.

"But I don't really have anyone I can talk to about this, certainly not the guys on the team, they're idea of a serious relationship involves it lasting more than a week."

Daria and Mack laughed at that before he pressed on.

"I mean, to be honest… The reason I started dating Jodie was because it felt like it was… expected."

"What do you mean, expected?"

"Well…" Mack trailed off, "Imagine the ruckus if the big burly black guy with dreads started dating Angie or one of the other… _white _popular girls."

Mack laughed darkly, "They say racism is dead… But I've seen how people look at interracial couples and it's, well… depressing."

"But what about now?" Daria asked quietly, "I mean why besides the initial reason are you and Jodie still…"

Mack looked down and muttered, "Because it's easy… But… I'm not really sure that's what I want…"

Thankfully they heard footsteps and they cut the conversation short with mutual drinks of coffee in time for the arrival of Jodie Landon, who went straight for the coffee pot and poured herself a large cup, tossed in a sugar pack and began drinking it like a man dying of thirst.

* * *

"I'm so glad that we have more volunteers," Nurse Pris said excitedly while bringing in the three new teens into the nursing facility.

The Better Day's Retirement Home was Lawndale's main home for the elderly in need of long-term care, and as part of 'Awareness of Others Week' the students of Lawndale could come here to read to those who just wanted some company.

Until now, only two students had signed up.

"Some of your friends are already here." Pris said as she brought the three to the main recreation room where Kevin, Jane, and Ethan saw a large group of old folks sitting around in a semi-circle in their wheelchairs and recliners.

Robert Tavare and Ted DeWitt-Clinton were the center of attention while doing a two-man performance of scenes from the works of William Shakespeare.

Or rather Ted was doing the scenes and Robert was struggling to remember the words in the right order.

"_Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour; There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice, proposing with the prince and Claudio…"_ Ted recited with passion.

"Much Ado About Nothing." Ethan said aloud, "Act III, the first scene."

Then noticing that Kevin, Jane, and the Nurse were looking at him, he elaborated, "It's my favorite Shakespearian play."

Robert in the meanwhile was compensating for a lack of memory for passion, which he wasn't very good at, but there was something charming about how he was trying so hard that was keeping his audience engaged.

It also helped that some of them were deaf, others senile, and others just glad that they weren't stuck with freaks.

Once Ted and Robert finished the scene and took their bows, Nurse Pris introduced those present to their new additional readers.

"And thus we see blanching of fear on their faces, signifying nothing." Ethan thought to himself dryly at the reactions of the elderly towards himself and Jane, he noticed that Kevin was being spared, the football gear probably helped make him seem more normal for some reason unknown to science.

* * *

"Uh… Stacy…" Joey said hesitantly in between kisses with his girlfriend, "I've got to admit… I've never done it before."

Stacy Rowe gave Joey Black a sheepish smile and said, "That's ok Joey… Neither have I."

The pair were in Joey's room, Stacy having boldly snuck out of her house in the dead of the night to fulfill a pair of promises to both Joey and herself.

Stacy took in a deep breath, suppressing her nervousness as best she could, and began to lift up her shirt, revealing a complete lack of a bra.

Joey sucked in a lusty breath at the sight and his last rational thought was… "Damm!"

* * *

"Um…." Joey mumbled, quite embarrassed at how quickly everything had ended, then some primordial instinct took hold of him and he said, "Want to try that again."

"_Yes!"_

* * *

Jodie Landon glanced her exhausted eyes from the latest memos at the sound of the office door opening, "Oh hey Daria." She said and went down back to it, her brain not registering the change that Daria had made to her appearance.

Mack however did, after he looked at Daria for a long minute and did a double-take he asked, "What happened to your glasses?"

At that very odd question, Jodie looked up again and realized that Daria was wearing a very different pair of glasses than she had before.

"I had to get a new prescription now that I'm driving," Daria explained simply, feeling very self-conscious about how she now looked, even thought this was the only change she had made.

"They look nice Daria." Jodie complimented her, and indeed they did, unlike her old bug-eyed pair, these were smaller square ones with thin black frames.

Daria tried to take it in stride, but still felt very weird inside, but she thought, "You're not being vain, you're still wearing glasses, you didn't cave in and get contacts like Mom tried to make you get, again."

"So you got them this morning right?" Mack asked, thinking this was the reason she was late.

"Um… Yes, that's why I couldn't get here on time." Daria said, latching on to that idea.

In fact the reason she was late had nothing to do with her new glasses, she had picked those up last night, the reason for her delayed arrival was because of couple of tiny cameras she now had upon her person.

"One for my coat buttons, one for Sack's office if I can manage it." Daria thought to herself, her stomach fluttering at the thought of what she was trying to pull.

Jodie went back to the memos while Mack gave Daria a warm smile and told her, quietly, that he liked them.

Daria felt her stomach flutter even more.

* * *

"It's been awhile that we've talked like this, just us three." Jamie White said to Joey Black and Jeffy Gray while cleaning up more roadkill.

"We are all still bro's, right?" Jeffy asked, nervous at the thought of truly losing the friendship that had sustained the Three J's through some very rough times.

"Of course we are guys," Joey replied, "I mean just because I went steady with Stacy doesn't mean anything's changed and stuff."

The other two J's grinned at that and Jamie said, "Well something did change, for the better man, we haven't had to read stuff to you."

"Or show you how to do the homework." Jeffy added, proud that Joey had begun to write out his own homework (with help).

"Thanks guys!" Joey answered, also feeling good that everything was coming together so well, he had his girls, his bros, and he was learning to read and write, and no one outside of his real friends was any wiser.

* * *

"Why would they need to read to him?" Tori Jericho asked herself, having been at a distance and heard some of the conversation.

The school's gossip decided to do some digging and eyeballed Joey's girlfriend Stacy, now normally she'd just work on Stacy until she cracked.

However Tori had noticed that since she had been dating Joey, Stacy had seemed to have grown more sure of herself, so the usual tricks wouldn't work.

"Time to break out the spy gear." Tori told herself, thinking about the treasure trove of equipment that Ms. Li bought, never used, and wasn't as secure as she thought it was…

* * *

Brittany Taylor was getting a book off of a high shelf in the good Congressman's office, which in this case required the use of a step ladder.

Which coincidentally gave the Congressman a good view of what was up her skirts, which was only shielded by very small lacy panties.

"Nice…" Sacks whispered to himself while his hand strayed, unknowingly, towards his genitals…

"This is too easy." Daria thought to herself while watching this through the cracked open door while the camera filmed away.

Daria continued to record until Brittany began stepping down, the Daria shifted position as quietly as she could, then made a couple semi-loud steps in the hall to signal that someone was coming.

Then she stepped in a minute later to see Brittany handing a flush politican a very heavy leather bound book.

Daria went in quietly and simply said she had the reports Sacks had asked for earlier and handed them to him.

"Thank you Dora." Sacks said, getting her name wrong again, "If that's all…"

"Of course Congressman." Daria said in her normal monotone and left, deciding to slip back later to see if she could get more on tape.

"Just in case they try to pass this off as a one-time thing." Daria thought to herself as she headed back to the intern's office to look for another excuse to be near Congressman Sacks.

* * *

"So how did reading with the elderly go son?" Coyote asked Ethan over an artery clogging Jumbo Stacker Burger at Cluster Burger.

"My sketchpad went over better than the book the Nurse gave me." Ethan replied after he took a big bite of his Bacon-Bomb Burger, "Jane got kicked out after she showed some old lady _her_ latest sketches."

"Why'd they do that?" Coyote asked innocently, having not had the experience of seeing Jane Lane's art first hand.

"She did some stuff influenced by the _Hellraiser _movies." Ethan answered and enjoyed seeing his father shudder.

"So Dad…" Ethan began, changing the topic to keep his father from asking "Have you thought about what I asked you earlier, ideas for something nice to do with Josh?"

"Um… I was thinking you and him could just do a nice dinner back home," Coyote replied and then rushed to add, "Without your mother or I being there."

"Hm…" Ethan mused while rubbing his chin, and getting a small amount bacon grease there.

Coyote handed him a napkin and told him to wipe his chin, "Cus we don't want your Mother to freak out."

The two Yeager men laughed at that, enjoying their little foray into the forbidden realms of flesh consumption.

* * *

Sandi Griffin sat cross-legged with Josh Decker on his living room floor, stunned by everything she had just told him.

"I… I shouldn't have said all that." She said, more to herself than to him.

"Don't be sorry," Josh replied, his face oddly calm after she gave him a blow-by-blow account of her night from hell.

"My therapist told me that suppressing traumatic events causes far more damage than talking about them."

Sandi felt her eyebrow arch and began to ask the obvious question before Josh waved his hand and began to explain.

"You're not the only one with experience in traumatic events." Josh then shuddered at his own dark memories.

Sandi began to look at Josh with sorrow and horror, but he said, "No I wasn't raped… But my father…"

Josh then paused for a minute before continuing, "There's a reason my Mom got divorced and he went all the way to California, the last we heard anyways."

"He was a drunk, and an abusive fiend… Ethan's seen the scars but I haven't explained them… I probably should… But…"

"You don't like talking about it." Sandi said very quietly and Josh nodded in reply, "But why tell me?"

"Because I wanted you to know that you are not alone."

Sandi felt tears, white hot, on her cheeks and saw mirrors of them on Josh's face and by some instinct that her mother had failed to dig out of her, Sandi reached out and gave Josh a hug.

"Thank You." She whispered while hugging him fiercely and receiving just as strong a grip right back.

* * *

Tori Jericho rubbed her nose bridge, feeling a powerful headache coming on from reading all those hard instructional manuals.

"This had better be worth all this thinking." She muttered bitterly while checking herself out in the mirror, she was wearing darker than usual clothes and she had the spy gear that would fit in her backpack.

"Now according to that girl… whatever her name was, Joey and Stacy have been spending a lot of time at the library… Let's start there."

Tori then took in a deep breath, tried to envision herself as that spy girl that girl in the ugly coat talked about at the ill-fated coffee shop, and then strode out to do some investigating for juicy gossip.

* * *

Daria Morgendorffer was up very late at night, having waited until the dead of night and the sounds of the Morgendorffer clan slumbering away to sneak down into the living room to make a copy of the stuff she had recorded.

"I'll just drop this off at the local newspaper in the morning before school." Daria thought to herself while skimming through the footage for the best images.

Daria fondled the borrowed equipment and felt a pang of regret but she would have to return it before Ms. Li got suspicious.

"Not that she doesn't have a million of these toys." Daria muttered, wondering how the Principal had gotten away with such an expensive form of hoarding for so long.

* * *

"You do realize that you've just blown a massive payday, right?" Jane asked while she and Daria made a longer than usual walk to school, having gotten up far earlier than normal to make it to the offices of the Lawndale Sun-Herald to drop off the package.

"Yes," Daria replied in answer, "However whatever cash I could have gotten from the tape would have been offset by the legal costs."

"Huh?"

"The Non-Disclosure Agreement that we all had to sign in order to work as interns." Daria explained, stretching out the words 'Non-Disclosure Agreement' so that an even more tired than normal Jane could understand it.

"Oh."

"And if I remember how the mass media works correctly, they won't print the story in the paper, but it will go on the Noon broadcast of Channel 7 news, and they'll leak it to some major broadcasters that they're doing the story to get bigger coverage and the kudos of having broken the story."

Jane laughed at that and mused, "I wonder how soon it will take for word to leak about all this at school."

"Meh… As long as it takes Tori Jericho's extended spy network to reach her."

* * *

Actually Daria was wrong, Channel 7 decided the story was too big to sit on until noon, so they interrupted some popular insipid morning talk show with the breaking news…

Tori's spy network lit up like a Christmas Tree hooked up to a nuclear power core and her three cellphones blew up at once.

The word was out at Lawndale High's general student body by the start of first period.

The reporters were there a few minutes later, flashbulbs, cameras, microphones, the works, all of them rushing towards the doors like a tsunami, held back only by the schools rent-a-cops.

Calls were made to the police to try and cordon the school off to the press, while Ms. Li had Brittany Taylor and the other interns working for Sack's office yanked out of class.

Helen Morgendorffer had left the office and headed towards the school as soon as her assistant alerted her to the news reports, knowing full well that Daria had worked for Congressman Sacks.

She was in full attack mode.

Ms. Li wouldn't stand a chance.

* * *

In Ms. Barch's class, the regular lesson about how combustibles were used by men to justify the Anti-Feminist power structure was interrupted by a 45 minute rant about how all MALE politicians are pigs who need to be castrated.

"I must say Ms. Barch is in fine form." Ethan said to his boyfriend dryly, enjoying the Chernobyl-level meltdown on full display.

"So which cheerleader was the object of the good Congressman's affections?" Josh asked jokingly, already suspecting the answer despite the media (half-assed) attempts at hiding Brittany's identity in the video.

"Well _whomever _it may be, I don't think she'll need to worry, too much anyways." Ethan replied, "Whoever made that video made damm sure to show that it was Sacks who was the letch, she was just an innocent Lolita about to be molested."

Both Josh and Ethan had their suspicions as to _who _made that video, but they fully intended to keep their mouths shut, especially since the current rumors involved Aliens, the MIB, Project MAJESTIC, and the Illuminati.

Then Ms. Li's voice of doom crackled over the PA system.

"Attention students of Laaaaandallllle hiiiigh! This is the Principal, as of today Awareness of Other's Week is hereby canceled. I wish to thank the students for their hard work, that is all!"

"At least Jane won't have to pick up roadkill." Ethan thought to himself while Ms. Barch continued with her rant, having completely ignored the PA system.

God being at Lawndale was fun, as long as you weren't directly involved.

* * *

Later in the day, after classes had ended, Ethan and Josh walked to the latter's house to catch up on homework, having only been delayed 25 minutes due to the massive gathering of media talking heads at the latest political sex scandal to rock the nation.

But on the way home Josh seemed nervous about something but Ethan decided to wait and let his boyfriend talk about what was on his mind in his own time.

Until finally, within a block of the Decker residence, Josh simply said, "Wait, stop. There's something I want to tell you Ethan."

"Yeah?" Ethan Yeager replied, keeping his cool, wondering what was up.

"You remember asking me about my Dad before, and how I always told you I don't talk about him?"

"Yeah?"

"I… I want to talk about it."

"In public?"

"Oh yeah, let's get home first."

Ethan gave his boyfriend a warm, caring smile, wrapped his arm around Josh's shoulder, and walked the rest of the way with his man right at his side.

* * *

It was very late, around 11 o'clock at night by the time the damm phones stopped ringing and she had managed to get away from the school, and the chaos that had been unleashed upon her.

Angela Li, the Principal of Laaaaaaandallllle Hiiiiigh now wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bed with a bottle of Wild Turkey and make it all go away.

But the damm phone rang.

"Yes." She said, her voice exhausted and snappish.

"Is this a bad time?"

"Mr. Britton?!"

"Yup, it's me."

"What do you want?"

"To say that I'm impressed with the continued force of Lawndale's butterfly effect, within a matter of days one little act of generosity on your part has derailed a rising political career."

Ms. Li began to stutter, trying to come up with a response but she was cut off.

"Oh don't worry, I'm not here to gloat, in fact I'm here to offer you a job."

"What?!"

"Sacks is going to 'resign' tomorrow, and the Party Establishment is already eyeballing candidates to replace him, once his placeholder's term expires next year."

"Wait… are you seriously suggesting…"

"Yes Ms. Li, future Congresswoman of District 3."

"What?"

"Who else should replace a man who tried to take advantage of an innocent student, then the courageous and philanthropic educator who tried to make the world a better place but was taken advantage of?"

"Hm…"

"I'll let you sleep on it Angela, have a nice night."

_Click!_

* * *

The Zon was packed to the gills with the outcasts, dregs, freaks, alternatives, and other unwashed masses to party the night away.

It was the first time that Sandi Griffin had been at the Zon since that night, but with Bob, Angel, and Burnout at her side, and some liquid courage in her belly beforehand, Sandi decided to face this place, beat the crap out of her fears, and have fun.

But there was a special guest with the group tonight.

"I still don't get why Rex Attor is hanging out with us." Angel said to the other two girls while Rex and Bob went to the bar to get drinks.

"I don't know either… Isn't he a footballer or sumthin?" Burnout asked in her usual drawl, it was impossible to tell if she was stoned or just talking like she was.

"He's one of the popular jocks and a bit of a bully." Sandi said as a matter of fact, "But Rex has been very quiet the last few days according to the gossip mill… something is clearly up."

The other two girls nodded sagely, and then when the two guys arrived, they all got their drink on.

Then it was time to dance, Bob went off with his girlfriends, and Rex just went off on his own before Sandi could open her mouth to ask.

"Fffmp!" She flounced, feeling like the geeky kid picked last for dodgeball, and she had dressed to the nines too, wearing tight black leggings, knee-high jackboots, a tight buttoned up leather vest (no bra), a couple of wrist bands with spikes on them, and a black choker necklace that was made of onyx, her hair it's now usual pink and blue combo.

Sandi decided to walk over to the bar to get another drink, which brought her into the line of sight of two strangers to the Zon.

* * *

"I still can't believe we came here." A voice that Ethan would have recognized as belonging to Stephen Pierson-Wells II (aka _Pee Wee_ and aka _Steve_) said to his companion.

"Come on, you have to look past the filth to see the good times to be had." Tom Sloane answered his friend as they both caught sight of what was easily the hottest girl present.

"Woah!" Stephen breathed at the pink & blue leather Goddess headed to within a couple of bar stools nearby for a gin & tonic.

The pair from Fielding Prep steeled themselves and headed on over to introduce themselves to the lucky lady of the evening.

"Hey cool hair!" Tom complimented her as way of introduction.

"Thanks." Sandi said, doing her best not to slurr her words as she turned around on the stool to see who was talking to her.

The guy talking to her had short brown hair, sea-green eyes, and was wearing very non-descript plain clothes, so hard to notice in fact that if he wasn't talking her eyes would have literally slid away from him.

His companion however was much more attractive, shorter than his friend, he had golden blond hair, steel grey eyes, great skin, and had clearly tried to dress down but failed so he looked like a preppy guy trying to dress down.

"I'm Tom and this is my friend Stephen, but we all call him Pee Wee." The guy with sea-green eyes said and then dodged a play punch from Stephen.

"I don't like that nickname," Stephen answered, "You can call me Steve if you like milady."

Sandi couldn't resist a slightly drunken giggle at that, "Thanks Steve, I guess… Oh my name is Sandi."

"Sandi…" Steve said as if he was savoring something delicious, "I like it."

The old sober Sandi wouldn't have given him the time of day, preppy guy or not he was _much too short _to be seen with and be popular.

But the new Sandi, one that was enjoying her drinks, the one that trying to become something newer and better… Was willing to at least talk to the kid and see what was up.

Tom was wise enough to take the verbal cues from the pair and conducted a disappearing act, and then a few minutes later found himself talking to a punk with blue hair who was taking a break from dancing with _two _girlfriends, and his odd companion, a jock-type named Rex.

* * *

Rex was drunk enough, and felt safe enough around Bob, to talk openly, even with the strange new guy in the group since hey, Rex had never seen him before and never expected to see him again afterward.

"I mean I've dug such a big fucking hole with this shit, I don't know how to get out." Rex explained as best he could while staying in a prone position.

"Just start climbing man, just start climbing." Bob said nonchalantly while smoking a cig.

"Where the fuck do I start?!" Rex asked more loudly than he intended.

"What's he talking about?" Tom asked the blue-haired punk, but Rex spared him the explanation by starting to freak out again about how his homophobic Dad would react to his son being… Gay.

"Oh…" Tom breathed before a thought occurred to him, "Look, Rex right? I know some guys at the school I go to that have a kind of 'support group'. I mean it's normally for kids at our… school, but I've got a friend in it and I'm sure you could, if nothing else, find someone to talk too."

Tom said that and thought about all the other things Rex would probably wind up doing, The Mafia were infamous for being polyamours when it came to sex within their little group.

"Hey… That doesn't sound too bad…" Rex slurred before noticing that he was now out of beer and went to go get a new one, promising to come right back.

* * *

Tori Jericho had woken up late at night to go to the bathroom, but afterwards she found herself reading the notes she had jotted down while following Joey and Stacy to the local library, the fancy equipment in her backpack hadn't been really needed after all.

She just wrote down the room number they had entered, the program it listed on the schedule outside for that time and day and just inquired as to what it was all about from a page.

"Hmm…" Tori mused again while making sure she had the big words right, "Remedial Literacy educational courses for those with learning disabilities."

It had required the use of a dictionary to translate what all that had meant, but it was worth it.

"So Joey is trying to learn how to read… The J's were covering for him all this time, now that's sick, twisted, and yet kinda nice too."

Tori wasn't sure yet how this information would be useful, and far from what people thought Tori did know how to keep a secret.

She just usually didn't bother, unless she thought it could be something to be used at a later date.

Unable to think of anything else, besides elation at the massive shit storm that had struck the school that day, Tori went back to bed to rest up for a new day.

**THE END**

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

"So Daria, Jane," Ethan Yeager said while the group of four walked their usual route to school, "I got a call from Brooke telling me the latest crazy rumor."

"And what pray tell did your little spy in the Style Goon's Squad tell you?" Daria asked with the air of one who did not give a rat's ass.

"Ms. Li is thinking about running for Congressman Sacks' seat in the next election."

"Now there's a BS rumor if I ever heard one," Jane Lane replied with a yawn, "Artie's rants about aliens have more merit than that, at least it's possible that little green men exist."

"Ms. Li wouldn't stand a chance in an actual election, you have to be popular to win those." Daria added, throwing in a fake yawn of her own.

Ethan and Josh both laughed at that, glad that at least this part of their lives hadn't changed at all, the morning snarkfest of Daria Morgendorffer and Jane Lane was always a good way to start the day before entering the bowels of Lawndale High.

* * *

_Notes: Some lines taken from 'Through a Lens Darkly' and 'The Old and the Beautiful', the characters Pat VII and Terry were borrowed from 'The Hallowed Halls of Fielding', the lyrics that Sandi was singing were from 'God Save the Queen' by the Sex Pistols._


	5. Chapter 5: Alien Laser Dance Party!

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 5 Alien Laser Dance Party!**

In Lawndale High's auditorium, the gathered student body of the region's main 8-hour 5-day a week prison program milled about and talked while waiting for Ms. Li's latest little project to get underway.

"And so Mack wants to start a Gay/Straight Alliance group at Lawndale." Ethan finished explaining to his gathered court, whom were seated around him, with him and Josh Decker in the center of the circle.

"Really, cool beans!" Kelly said while adjusting her floppy hat.

"Do you think Ms. Li would approve of the group?" Brooke asked, having slipped away from the Style Girl's Club in order to chat.

"Well with those rumors about her running for office about… I'm not sure." Ethan admitted, when the devil came to the stage and called for everyone to settle down.

"…And before the varsity interpretive dance team begins its performance - "History, We Are You" - we have a brief announcement from some special guests, agents..." Ms. Li was saying before a man and a woman in matching black suits and shades literally shoved her out the way.

"No names!" the man said.

"No credentials!" the woman added.

"Student, we'll be brief. We've received some disturbing reports from this school, and we're asking for your cooperation." The man said in a clip tone.

"Keep your eyes open. Watch for people who are different. They know who they are." The woman added in perfect sync with her partner.

"And with your help, kids, so will we!" the male agent concluded before the pair strode from the stage.

The collective crowd of Lawndale High began to murmur to each other about this strange twist when Ms. Li managed to get back to the microphone and added a final announcement.

"And to the students of Laaaandalllle Hiiiigh! Remember that we are still looking for volunteers to head the dance committee, which can be used to furnish your college applications as an extracurricular activity!"

And at that, the dance team was finally allowed to start the show, which no one really paid any attention to whatsoever.

* * *

"Ok so we have creepy government agents looking for 'different' people and Ms. Li is... well Ms. Li." Josh mused over his flavorless school food to the others.

"So what else is new?" Ethan asked while eating the vegan lunch he brought in lieu of eating the stuff served at the School.

"Mmm… Well besides the government goons, nothing I can think of." Josh replied off-handedly.

Jane Lane however mentioned a desire to do a big art project, something larger than she had ever attempted before.

"I want scale, gigantic scale! And grandeur, don't forget grandeur!" She added, the mania evident in her every gesture and tone.

"And I'm sure that one of us has a cathedral or a palace for you to work in." Daria said very dryly.

"Scoff at me if you wish Morgendorffer, but I will find a way to make it happen."

"Scoff!" Daria replied with a Mona Lisa grin.

"What about that dance thing the principal was talking about?" Shaggy suggested.

"What?" Jane replied while Daria asked, "What principal?"

"You could run the dance committee and decorate the gym with your big art project." Shaggy offered up while playing with a piece of joint paper (minus the Pot since he didn't want to lose his stash).

"Mmmm…" Jane mused aloud, however Ethan pointed out that the Dance would require more than just artwork.

"Just give the kids a bag of chips and a boom box." Josh joked in between gulps of milk.

"Meh… I don't think I could get away with it." Jane concluded quietly.

Then a gaggle of the girls from Quinn's personal cult strolled on by, with their queen bee, Quinn Morgendorffer bragging.

"And with all of _us _on the Dance Committee, we will like throw the best party in Lawndale High history!"

"Now I _know _I couldn't get away with it!" Jane reconcluded with a shudder at the thought of working with those nitwits.

"I pity whomever they drag in to do the physical labor." Andrea mused while flicking away some of her dark black hair from her eyes.

* * *

"And I was thinking that you could get the other J's and some of the guys on the football team to, you know, help with the heavy lifting and stuff." Stacy Rowe cooed sweetly into her boyfriend's ear.

"Sure babe, no problem." Joey replied with a grin, knowing that if he and the guys did this right, they would all be one step closer to the honey pot.

"Not that I'd have any trouble right now." Joey thought while nuzzling Stacy's neck and making her giggle.

Unbeknownst to him, Quinn was glancing at the happy couple with self-satisfaction, glad that at least one part of getting the Dance underway was working like a charm.

* * *

After school ended, Daria and Jane were walking their usual route home and following their usual routine of snarking away about the absurdity of high school life.

"And after the performance of that so called 'interpretive dance' Mack and Jodie apparently got into a huge fight." Jane finished before taking a drink out of her water bottle.

"Wait, what?!" Daria said in amazement, having not her that bit of juicy gossip.

"Yeah, apparently Mack wanted to take Jodie to dinner tonight but her parents wanted her to do some sort of volunteer thing, again."

"And this is different from any other time because…?" Daria couldn't resist asking.

"This time it was the final straw… Not that shocking really since Jodie has kept Mack as item ten on her to-do-list for what seems like ages now."

"Yeah… That's what he told me…" Daria began before realizing what she was saying and went Eep! and covered her mouth.

It was still too late.

"What?!" Jane exclaimed and stopped dead in her tracks, since this was her turn to be amazed, "Ok Morgendorffer, time to spill it."

Daria didn't see a choice, so she spilled.

"Woah!" Jane breathed, and that was all she could come up with.

They went the rest of their to Jane's house in silence.

* * *

"I wonder how, like, lame the dance will be." Sandi mused to Angel and Burnout at her place while Bob was in the bathroom.

"Well it's your former friends running it so…" Angel began to ask and then thought better of it.

Sandi however laughed and said, "It will either be poorly done and everyone will blame them, or it will be a smashing success and everyone will love them, there isn't much room for, like, middle ground."

Burnout nodded in agreement, or maybe she was just nodding off, it was hard to tell.

Angel did nod in agreement and then flipped through her math book and glared at the assignment for the day.

"The downside to being around Bob is all the studying." Sandi thought to herself, but then remembered that he did find ways to get it done both quickly and correctly.

"I will admit, in my head, that my grades are getting better because of this." She told her inner voice and no one else while digging through her own book to try and dig some useful information out of it.

A few minutes later Bob came in, with Sam in tow and with only a brief hello to the group he went for his backpack and got a scrap piece of paper and jotted down some band names and handed it to him.

"Off you go little rocker!" Bob said to Sandi's eldest brother as he scampered off.

Sandi smiled at this but said nothing about it, instead asking for some help on number twelve on her homework.

"Oh, that's easy to solve if you look at it differently than what they're trying to teach us." Bob explained, using the same techniques that his older brother once used to teach him math.

"Here let me show you."

* * *

Tom Griffin looked at the pamphlet and once again thanked his lucky stars that there really were places were sensitive men could go and just… Bond.

Without being judged for being total wusses.

"The Emo-itive Men's Weekend Retreat!" Tom said to himself while sitting at his home office desk, "This is the perfect place to go and sort out how I feel."

"I hope the kids will be ok with Sandi watching over them…"

* * *

Ethan Yeager entered Jane Lane's bedroom with his boyfriend and their guest, Mack just in time to hear a guy being interviewed on Sick Sad World claiming that aliens were already on Earth.

"…They could be your friends, your family! They act almost normal, but something's off.."

"Yes, the TV." Jane said as she pointed the remote at the screen and sent it back to black just as the usual guests arrived, with an unexpected addition.

"Hey Ethan, Josh… Mack?!" Daria said in surprise at the trio.

"Hey Daria."

"Hi!"

"Surprised?" Mack asked with a playful grin.

"Yeah." Daria admitted.

"So what brings you to my humble abode?" Jane asked while sitting back down on her bed next to Daria, and the guys gathered around in a semi-circle.

Mack then said, "Well I was going to talk to you guys originally about the Gay/Straight Alliance I'm trying to put together. But, I'm sure you know what happened."

"I heard a few bird twittering about a fight between star-crossed lovers." Jane replied with a slight grin.

Mack laughed at that, "Yea… Something like that."

The laugh he had given however wasn't a kind one; it was filled with bitterness and weariness.

"To tell you guys the truth… I'm not even sure about the 'lovers' part at all. I mean we've been dating or maybe _dated _is a better term, for nearly three years."

Mack sighed and then shifted position to just lie on the floor, "There were plenty of good times, but her parents just kept dumping more and more stuff on her to do for college apps and she never, ever said _no_ to any of it."

"I just became something for her to take of, another task to deal with and then to move on from… And I put up with it because…"

Mack trailed off on that, unable to articulate an answer of any sort at all.

An awkward silence filled the room, which thankfully was broken by the sound of a happy tune being played on a guitar.

"What is that music?" Daria asked with a disturbed look on her face.

"It's being going on for three days now." Jane answered with annoyance.

"Please tell me that isn't Trent." Ethan said, not sure of what was going on.

"I wish I could." Jane said quietly.

"I'll go talk to him." Josh said quietly and left the room just as the doorbell rang.

Jane and Daria went to answer it, which left Ethan and Mack alone in Jane's bedroom.

"Well, we certainly know how to clear a room." Ethan quipped, and getting a small chuckle out of Mack.

A silence then fell over the room, which Mack chose to fill by asking, "So Ethan I have to ask, I mean I did see the film in O'Neill's class, why did Josh go to see Trent anyways? I thought he was jealous of you and him, or something."

Ethan gave a sheepish smile at that and answered, "Yeah, I thought Trent was hot from the moment I saw him, and yeah it did make my man jealous, but I've done my best ever since not to let it be obvious and I've made damn sure to keep my alone time with Trent to a bare minimum, especially if Josh is nearby."

Mack grinned at that and said, "Well that makes sense but it doesn't answer my question."

"Oh right," Ethan replied, "Trent's been teaching Josh to play guitar."

Mack would have responded but the sounds of twin screams from downstairs caused everyone else in the house to rush to the source of the bizarre sounds.

"Sorry guys," Daria said shamefaced and blushing at the onslaught of males rushing to defend her and Jane's honor, "It's just the pizza guy."

"He spooked us." Jane added, also looking a little humiliated.

"Well hurry up," the pimply faced scrawny guy said while handing them the food, "I have to deliver these pizza's on time or their free, I really have to go."

Daria recognized the kid from Pizza Prince and the UFO convention from a long time ago and couldn't resist asking.

"On your way over Arnie… You didn't see any strange lights or hear anything odd… right?"

"OH NO THEIR BACK?!" Arnie the Pizza Guy screamed in sheer terror while almost throwing himself into the house and shutting the door behind him.

"Trust me guys, you'll want to stick around for this!" Jane whispered to the others as Arnie began his impressive and (for D&J) familiar rant.

* * *

Arnie had been decanting at great length for over an hour while Jane and Company ate their food in the kitchen.

"And that's why they come at night! It's too steal your dreams and your skins!" Arnie finished with yet another flourish.

Trent couldn't resist asking, "Hey man, do you write song lyrics?"

Arnie began to answer but was interrupted by the beeping of his pager, he took one look at it and screamed, "OH NO FIRED AGAIN! THIS HAPPENS EVERYTIME! Ever since my encounter with those darn ALIENS!"

Daria glanced at her friend Jane, who glanced back and whispered, "I think I know what I want to paint next, an epic portrait in honor of all those lunatics who have given their skins to the aliens."

"You mean those who don't take their medication?"

"That's only if you want to get technical."

* * *

"So Ethan, Josh…" Mack began before trailing off, not sure how to continue.

The trio was sitting in Jane Lane's living room, the pizza guy had left just a few minutes before while Daria, Jane, and Trent had gone back upstairs.

"Yeah Mack?" Ethan asked, curious as to what had Mack so obviously torn up.

"I was wanting to ask your guy's advice on something."

"Shoot." Josh replied.

Mack sighed and continued with, "Jodie and I… Well we're on the rocks and I do like her, and maybe once loved her but I don't think it's going to work out, But I don't know how to break it off."

Ethan gave an honest answer, "Well Mack no offense but neither one of us has gone through this sort of a break up before."

"But speaking on pure instinct, just tell her how you feel and see where it goes."

Mack brightened and gave his thanks, Josh couldn't help but add a small amount of snark.

"Well I was worried for a sec that you were about to 'come out' to us, it's happens a lot for some reason."

All three of them enjoyed a long and hearty laugh at that.

"Sorry guys," Mack wheezed, "I'm straight as an arrow in any case."

"You sure?" Ethan teased.

"Pretty damn sure, yeah." Mack replied with amusement still evident in his very aura.

"Damn, now what will the rest of the closet cases in Lawndale fantasize about?" Josh mockingly asked.

"Rex?" Mack suggested, which caused the trio to laugh again.

* * *

The meeting of the Style Girl's Club at Quinn's house wasn't going the way the Queen Bee had planned.

"Ok so let's recap." Quinn said while playing with her pretty pink pen and the clipboard and list in front of her.

"We've come up with, 'Bronze, Gold &Copper', 'Fashion Theme', 'Old Hollywood', 'Paris', and 'Concorde'"

Quinn sighed and said, "While these are all cute ideas, I just don't know how we can turn them into something that can work for a dance, or even how to pull them off."

Tiffany began to speak, but since it would take a while for her to finish the first word, everyone else tuned her out.

Stacy Rowe enthusiastically suggested asking the guys Joey was recruiting what they thought would make for a fun dance, which caused everyone else to squeal, "EWW!"

"Stacy!" Quinn freaked out, "We all know what a guy thinks would make for a fun dance and making _that _the _theme_?! Ugh!"

"Sorry!" Stacy squeaked, falling on old habits again.

Tori Jericho whispered something to her friend, Rene Glass, who then did something she didn't do very often.

She spoke.

"You know Quinn, maybe we should consult with an outside source, someone who _knows _about stuff like this."

Everyone in the room stared at Rene, it was so rare to hear her speak it was like seeing a Marc Jacobs bag on a sale rack.

"Hmm…" Quinn mused, the wheels turning in her rarely used head until she struck on a headache with pictures.

Which to everyone else is an 'idea'.

"I've got it!" Quinn squealed, "I'll talk to her in the morning."

She then moved on to the next topic, what everyone would be wearing to the dance, granted the fashions would have changed by then but it was important to think about these things anyways.

* * *

"Another day, another waste." Ethan said while walking with Daria and Jane.

"Where's Josh?" Daria asked out of mild curiosity.

"He called in sick I guess." Ethan replied nonchalantly.

"Maybe the aliens got him." Jane mused in reference to the theme of the night before.

The trio began to enjoy that moment of humor, but it was cut short by the arrival of Mr. O'Neill who had clearly overheard them.

"Aliens? Ugh! The guy who delivers my pizzas talks about them all the time."

Ethan, Daria, and Jane all raised their eyebrows at that but said nothing, not wanting to encourage him in any way, shape or form.

It didn't help, not one bit.

"Between him and the X-Files I can't help but think about where all this comes from in the first place."

"Don't encourage him." Ethan reminded the girls under his breath while the teacher ploughed on.

"Paranoia and suspicion of the 'Other', of those who are outside the box, as it were."

"Outside the box," Daria mused aloud, "Artists, Misanthropes, Gays… Teachers."

"Exactly!" Mr. O'Neill said, happy that Daria was getting what he was saying.

They were interrupted however by the sounds of a scuffle and the impressive sight of Mr. DeMartino being strong armed out of his class by two very beefy men in suits and shades.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! THIS ISN'T STALINGRAD!" DeMartino roared, his eye staying in bulged out mode the entire time.

"Damn right pal! And it's isn't gonna be!" One of the government agents said while hauling the Vietnam Vet with impressive strength.

"I'M AN EDUCATOR!"

"Say it again, it only makes it more enjoyable!"

Everyone in the halls of Lawndale High stood stock still while witnessing this entire event, silence pervaded the halls even after the departure of the history teacher.

Until Ms. Li roared over the PA, ordering everyone to get to class.

"I wonder who the sub will be for DeMartino's?" Jane asked while everyone else moved in a rush.

"A communist?" Daria asked in a snark.

Unfortunately bits and pieces of this were overheard by Tori Jericho and Brittany Taylor, the former already filling in the blanks herself, the latter just repeating what she heard and mangling it even further.

* * *

Jodie found Mack at his locker grabbing his books for his next class, Kevin and Brittany were swooping in, but a glance from Jodie to Brittany was enough to have Brittany lead her boy toy elsewhere for the moment.

"Hey Mack." She said weakly.

Mack turned to look at Jodie and returned an equally weak greeting.

There was a pause as the two of them tried to come up with something to say, then in a blinding moment of absolute revelation the pair reached the same concept and said it at the same time.

"We should break up."

Mack and Jodie both did matching double takes then when they realized that they had managed to act in sync again they both chuckled, but it died quickly.

Jodie sighed and said, "I've been thinking, I mean after the fight, I… I had an argument with my parents, a big one."

"And I think, I _think_, I got through to them."

Mack dared to venture a question but Jodie cut him off with, "I'm going to be slowing down my workload, by a lot. But… If your still game for a gay-rights organization in Lawndale then I'll run it if you want me to."

Mack was unable to respond, now after they had both said they were breaking up Jodie was fessing up to basically breaking ranks with her parents.

"Something she should have done long ago." Mack's inner voice whispered to him.

Outloud however Mack said, "That's great Jodie… But that still doesn't change anything between us now, right?"

"Yeah Mack," Jodie answered sadly, "It doesn't change a thing."

Mack sighed at that, "I wish that we could start from the beginning, but we've both drifted and…"

Jodie gave a small, sad, smile and answered once more, "There's no real reason to go back there anyways."

She then gave him a small kiss on the cheek, a kiss of goodbye.

"I've also thought about other things, thought them completely through for the first time anyway Mack, and once you've got yourself figured out, give me a call and we can really be friends."

And with that, Jodie Landon walked away.

Mack just stood there, his mind trying to figure out her departing words, but all he could come up with was a complete snarl.

* * *

"Did you hear about Mr. DeMartino?" one student said to another.

"No wait, did you say that Jodie and Mack broke up?!" another pair of students gossiped.

"O'Neill thinks that Aliens and Communists are in the school right now, disguised as pizza guys!"

"Did you see Quinn wearing that ugly black scarf, what's up with that?!"

"Sandi was seen with some posh guy in a Fielding Uniform, how'd she pull it off with that hair!" from yet another gabbing group of gabbers.

"I heard it's that weird girl and her friend, they, like, are planning an alien takeover."

"There's been a lot of people in suits heading in and out of Ms. Li's office. They always leave with garbage bags full of shredded paper for some reason." The gossipers said in dark tones.

"Well according to that girl in the white shirt, Jodie broke up with Mack so she could go Lesbian. She's gonna run some gay cult and everything." One (secretly) lesbian student said to another girl whom she had been wanting to get into the sack for ages.

"So if DeMartino was an alien… does that mean that his eye thing was a way to read our minds?"

"What about that girl in the ugly coat? What's she up too…"

* * *

"So now the whole school is in a complete uproar." Brooke finished reciting as many of the crazy rumors as she could remember.

The popular girl then paused for breath and took a deep gulp of water while the rest of the occupants of Ethan's table were working on processing all this new batshit crazy information.

Using the distraction as a cover, Brooke slipped Jane Lane a note and then strolled off back to the popular girl's table, but not before giving Ethan a warm goodbye and a wish that Josh would be better tomorrow.

"I have to admit that Brooke is kinda growing on me." Andrea thought outloud, shocking everyone all over again, including herself.

"Andrea… Saying something nice about a popular girl?!" Kelly said in mock-shock, "Ok it's official, we are in the End Times and the Antichrist will reign over the world!"

This broke the tension and everyone laughed, even Andrea, though her's was tinged with a small amount of embarrassment.

Jane Lane quietly read the note, showed it to Daria, then muttered about going to the bathroom and slipped away.

Daria glanced at her food and gave it a Mona Lisa smile, but her mind was on the very interesting proposal that Quinn had made to Jane Lane, Artist Extraordinary!

* * *

"A hundred dollars," Quinn Morgendorffer said to Jane Lane while the pair stood in very cramped quarters in the janitor's closet, a small light bulb their only light. "In exchange you'll help us plan and execute the Dance, you'll get full credit for the artwork of course, and control of the budget."

"How much is the budget?" Jane asked, the wheels already turning in her head.

"A thousand dollars, well minus the money offered for services rendered of course."

"Alright, deal."

The girls shook on it.

But then Jane asked what kind of things the rest of the committee would be doing and Quinn simply said, "Talk to Stacy and Joey about that."

Then she just upped and left without another word to the (useful) social outcast.

* * *

"I'm a complete sellout." Trent moaned again after finishing the latest version of what was going to be a jingle for a car commercial.

"Well you said that you really need the gig." Josh reminded his mentor again while restringing his own guitar.

"Yeah…" Trent replied while laying back down on his bed, "But I wish I could make money without feeling so…"

"Corporate?" Josh supplied.

"Yeah man." Trent drawled, clearly about to pass out.

Josh began to contemplate newer ways to make happy music while Trent was on the brink of yet another narcoleptic nap.

To prevent this, Josh took Trent's guitar and played the loudest notes he could manage on short notice.

"Woah!" Trent moaned and shot up like a vampire that was just staked.

"Can't sleep just yet man," Josh replied nonchalantly as he finished stringing his own guitar, "Remember in exchange for helping you, your taking me to Axl's and getting me the two-for-one discount thing."

"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot." Trent replied, thinking about the new design that he had found in a tattoo magazine.

"I wonder what Josh wants to get so badly." Trent thought to himself before thinking that 'So Badly' might make a good band name.

* * *

Tori Jericho ran her tongue over her lips and sighed at the sight of the disks, she had just finished compiling all the data into an easy to read format.

At the first hints of the rumors about Ms. Li wanting to run for higher office, the Super Gossip had decided to collect as much dirt as she possible could, beating Ms. Li to the punch.

"And Ms. Li has, like, tons of icky skeletons in her closet." Tori thought to herself as she finished labeling the 19th disk.

Nineteen CD's, once blank, now filled with damning information on things ranging from budget skimming, illegal purchase, cooked books, fixed grades, manipulated test scores, even some links to organized crime, if the money laundering rumors had merit.

But now the question emerged, what to do with what she knew.

"If Ms. Li's in Congress then she can't be principal, but OH GOD we can't have her in Congress, but she can't be principal in congress, but Congresswoman Li?!"

On and on Tori's two major trains of thought fought with each other, neither one able to defeat the other.

Until something changed one way or another, Tori Jericho was paralyzed.

* * *

"Ok I think I've got most of it." Angela Li thought to herself at the latest pile of old files to be destroyed. After all it had taken quite a bit of work over the last nine years to keep Laaaaandalllle Hiiiigh a smoothly running machine, some of that work unethical, some out and right illegal.

"I can fix that in congress." Li promised herself as she flipped through more files about the 'Byes', or the system in which the important students, i.e. Athletes, had their grades 'fixed' so that they could focus on winning rather than petty things.

Like learning.

"I'll have to find some way to keep their grades up without the Byes during the general election." Li reminded herself once more, but she still didn't have any ideas.

She glanced at the tenth paper shredder she had opened up, having used nine others during the day to the point where they all broke.

"Time to go to work!" Li chortled to herself and fed the documents into the shredder.

God it was good to work at Laaaaaandallllle hiiiigh!

* * *

"There was a lot of weirdness today," Josh said to Ethan as they reached the front door of the Yeager residence, "But I hope that the worst is over now."

"I wouldn't count on it." Ethan replied as he found the right key on his chain and unlocked the door and they entered and quickly ran into two people that they never thought to see at Ethan Yeager's home.

Tom and Elsie Sloane, both with small suitcases and sleeping bags.

"Um, okay… What's this?" Josh asked confused at the sight.

But before the Sloane kids could explain, Willow Yeager entered the living room and said, "Oh hello everyone, Ethan isn't it nice that your cousins are staying over?"

"Yeah, but why are they staying over?" Ethan asked while scratching his head.

"Uncle Michael dropped by for a couple nights unexpected, he brought Tristan with him." Elsie said flatly.

"Oh dear god!" Ethan breathed, the very name Tristan making bile rise up in his throat.

"That's about the size of it." Tom replied with a weary sigh.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes," Willow replied, "Your father is already on his way home Ethan, all of you should just make yourselves at home."

* * *

Dinner at the Yeager residence was an eye-opening affair for Tom and Elsie, used to dealing with the thinly veiled hypocrisy of things like their mother pretending to have done the cooking, conversation that contained tripwires, and this was just between the immediate family, it got even worse with relatives.

But here, Willow had done all the cooking, though Ethan informed them she used to do _everything_ from scratch.

"But with them embracing a more, conventional approach, Mom's been going to farmer's markets, organic grocery stores, rather than relying on the garden." Ethan said, earning laughs from the Sloane kids until they realized that he wasn't kidding.

They also discovered the joys, and pitfalls of vegan cooking, in that the food is delicious, but it isn't very filling if your not used to it.

"At least they didn't ask for meat," Ethan thought to himself, thankful for the tact that apparently gets hammered into the children of privilege with their mother's milk, or the milk of the wet nurse, or whoever it was as the case might be.

After dinner, Ethan led the other three on a brief tour of the house and the Sloane's got an even bigger eyeful of the aesthetics of the Sixties than they had ever expected to see.

Then Ethan lead them to his bedroom, which felt like a completely different universe with its bare white walls, black carpet, and very minimal décor.

"I don't like putting a lot of effort into things." Ethan said to Elsie as she just stared at Ethan's bare space.

"And it shows." Tom replied with a cheeky grin.

"So, who wants the first honors?" Josh asked as he broke out Ethan's pot stash, and then both Ethan and Josh couldn't resist laughing at the deer-in-the-headlights faces that the Sloane kids made.

* * *

Sandi Griffin and Stephen Pierson-Wells II were on her bed, making out, fully clothed at the moment, but the mood was quickly turning towards something intensely passionate.

Sandi broke off the kissing session and breathed, "Stop for a sec."

"What?" Steve replied, "Did I do something wrong?"

"No," she replied, her chest heaving, "But, I've never done what I think we're about to do."

"I haven't either." Steve admitted, shamed faced at his virginity.

"Let's just, like… Try something first." Sandi replied, blushing at the thought of what she wanted to do in lieu of full on intercourse.

"Just stay right there, like that." She replied while she shifted position, so her face was level with his pants and his level with hers.

It only took Steve half a second to figure out what she wanted to try and was completely game for it.

* * *

Trent Lane rubbed more A&D ointment on the new tat he had gotten on his right leg, on the shin bone, it had been the most painful place he had had tattooed yet.

"Worth it though," Trent reminded himself as he looked at the tribal styled dragon that was there now, before pulling his pant leg back down and heading to the garage where he had heard strange noises.

He opened the door quietly and felt the splatter of paint hit him full force.

"Oh sorry Trent didn't see you there!" Jane said in a rush while heading towards her now green and blue brother.

"Oh that's ok," Trent drawled, "I just wanted to check on you is all."

"I'm alright Trent," Jane answered while turning back to her work, "Just a little project is all."

"Hmm, not much little about it." Trent thought to himself at what she was doing.

She was painting on large pieces of fabric and canvases, paint had clearly been flying everywhere in ways that Jackson Pollock would be proud of.

But emerging from the chaos were figures that Trent recognized as being UFOs, aliens, rayguns, and for some reason a couple hammers and sickles.

"Is that one doing the Che pose?" Trent thought to himself while looking at one of the aliens.

He glanced at Jane one more time, she was clearly in her element and running on coffee and creativity, so Trent quietly left and went to find a shirt.

* * *

"Oh come on, aliens don't hide in the bushes, it's just a stalker or a serial killer." Daria said to herself while walking down the last block towards the Yeager residence.

She reached the front door in short order and rang it, it only took a few minutes for Coyote to answer the door.

"Hey Daria," the aging hippie turned businessman said before going, "Woah!" and pointed pasted Daria's face.

She followed his fingers and saw what he was seeing; a series of lights moving back and forth for a few minutes before one by one they all went out.

"I think I'll just come in now." Daria said quietly before stepping past Coyote and shutting the door for him.

* * *

"But Kevy, Kevy!" Brittany exclaimed while Kevin Thompson groped her through her cheerleader uniform, "Aren't we going to follow her and save the world and junk?"

"Well yeah!" Kevin replied, clearly not paying attention to much beyond his girlfriend's rack, "But we don't have to do it right this second."

"Great!" Brittany replied while reaching her hands to the back of his head to pull him down before hearing a noise.

A quick flash of light from their flashlights revealed Upchuck and a guy covered in pimples they didn't recognize.

"Hey Upchuck," Kevin said, "Who's that cus we're going to save the world and stuff."

"This is Artie," Upchuck answered, "And he's told me all about the secret alien love goddesses who will take all the guys away and make them love slaves."

"Cool!" Kevin replied, his flash light waving around.

"No it's not cool!" Artie replied in his nasally voice, "They rip off your skin and then make you lose your job!"

"Relax Artie," Upchuck replied while flipping his light from the right hand to the left, "We'll find the goddess's soon."

"Oh darn I dropped by flash light!" Artie exclaimed while mimicking Upchuck and discovering that hands covered in pizza grease are not conductive to catching things.

"Where'd you drop it?" Brittany squeaked before the four of them tried to find the runaway flashlight, sending flashes of light into the air before Artie said, "Found it!"

"Hey why are we following Daria with flashlights on?" Upchuck asked, finally realizing that all the light would draw attention.

And one by one the flashlights were turned off.

* * *

Daria hung her coat up and caught her reflection in a small mirror near the coatrack, she was wearing a black shirt rather than her normal yellow one having grabbed it by mistake earlier that morning in a rush for the door.

Combined with her new, smaller glasses, she looked a bit more fetching than she normally did in her manstopper armor.

"Oh well, it's not like Ethan or Josh will care." Daria reminded herself, comfortable around Lawndale's 'original' gay couple.

But when she reached Ethan's door and opened it, and sighing at the smell of pot, there was a small surprise waiting for her.

"Hey Daria!" Ethan drawled, "These are my cousins, Tom and Elsie."

He then waved his hand lazily towards the other two in the room, the girl with short cut hair and a hairband was sitting next to Josh, who had taken off his coat to reveal a surprise.

He had gotten a tattoo, a tribal styled phoenix in red and orange on his left shoulder.

"Wow, nice tattoo." Daria complemented him, not sure what else to say.

"Yeah, it's one of Ethan's designs." Josh replied.

"Really, cool!" Elsie said aloud, while waving her hand in front of her face, liking the way it felt to move her hand under the effects of her first drug experience.

The other boy in the room seemed more sober than the other three, and when Daria look at him, the thing that caught her attention were his eyes.

"Hi I'm Tom." The boy replied, his sea-green eyes dancing in Daria's vision.

"Um… Hi." Daria said weakly, feeling queasy for some reason.

The two of them just stared at each other for a while, unable to say anything that they thought the other would like, until Daria blurted out.

"Um, do you have a last name?"

Tom seemed a bit apprehensive as he answered, "Sloane."

The name rang a bell, but Daria couldn't for the life of her place it with anything so she simply answered, "Cool, mine is Morgendorffer."

"Daria Morgendorffer," Tom said out loud, "I like it."

"Me too." Daria answered, while running her fingers through her hair nervously.

During this, Ethan passed a joint to Elsie and couldn't resist a smile at the sheepish way that Daria and Tom were trying to talk.

"This is getting interesting." Ethan thought to himself while getting up to open a window to let some of the smoke out.

"Interesting indeed."

* * *

Michael Jordan Mackenzie, or Mack to everyone else had just finished telling his mother, Linda Mackenzie everything that had happened between him and Jodie.

"And then she said, 'once you have yourself figured out, give me a call', and I can't for the life of me piece together what that's supposed to mean." Mack finished, the frustration evident in his tone at that particular line.

The handsome looking older black woman looked thoughtful for a long moment before beginning to speak.

"Mack," she began in her rich, thick voice, "When long-term relationships end, sometimes things become much clearer to those who end them, and sometimes there's a lot of confusion, but it can be both."

"Have you considered that you're just overthinking things?" Linda Mackenzie asked him to finish what she was saying.

Now it was Mack's turn to look thoughtful and he replied with a "Hmm…"

His mother gave him a smile that only a knowing mother could give and said, "Go with your instincts Mack, they have always served you well, when you trusted yourself long enough to listen to them."

"Ok." Mack replied, not able to think of anything else to add to that.

"I know you'll 'figure out' whatever it is you need to figure out and be better for it." Linda said while getting up from the kitchen table and giving her only son a hug and a kiss on the cheek before departing, leaving him to his thoughts.

"I hope he does figure it out soon," Linda thought to herself once she was out of the room, "Cus otherwise he'll just do this all over again with another girl."

Mack in that moment felt nothing but confusion and frustration, his mind kept coming up with blanks until he gave up for the moment and went to the fridge to get something to eat.

* * *

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Joey asked Jane Lane while three of the football players stood on ladders, stringing up the canvases that Jane had worked on non-stop the night before.

"I mean it looks cool, but there are all those… rumors. This could end badly."

Jane managed to raise her head from the super-sized thermos containing enough coffee to keep an army awake, her blurry eyes managed to focus on Joey and she croaked, "Best… way… end rumors… make fun of… sleepy…"

"Huh?" Joey said as his girlfriend ran up and kissed his cheek and giggled.

"I think this is so _cool_ Jane!" Stacy exclaimed.

Jane groaned something that sounded vaguely thankful before turning back to her coffee.

"Is she going to be ok?" Stacy asked her boyfriend with extreme concern, looking at the barely functioning person in front of her.

"Hm… Maybe more coffee is in order." Joey thought out loud, and Stacy ran off to sneak into the teacher's lounge for more.

* * *

"So you're going with my cousin to the dance?" Ethan asked with amusement and a knowing grin at Daria, who blushed and muttered something about it not being a 'date-date' but just 'trying to make friends'.

"Dar-eia!" Ethan replied in the same way that Quinn said her sister's name, "That's how it starts, first you try to make friends and the next think you know, you're playing tonsil hockey in a dark corner."

Daria tried to come up with a response, but in a rare instance, snark and wit completely failed her, so she fell back on the excuse of, "We should pay attention."

Ethan just formed a bigger grin on his face at that but chose not to continue teasing Daria about the events of last night

He glanced at Josh, who for once wasn't wearing his blue track coat but instead was wearing a wife beater to show off his new tat, and every time he mentioned that it was Ethan's drawing, it made his man beam like someone who won a million dollars.

Ethan Yeager glanced at the front of the class, Ms. Barch was going down a list of elements on the periodic table and explaining some basic facts about each of them.

"You know, get her off the topic of her ex-husband, or man-hating in general and she's a pretty damn good teacher." Ethan thought to himself, having learned more about science from Janet Barch than any of his other science teachers.

Then she snapped at Mack again without any provocation, ruining the moment.

* * *

Having nothing better to do in Math, seeing as how paying any attention to the teacher's sleep-inducing hypnotic voice would result in being knocked out, Brooke Tanner spent her time more productively.

Gathering up the latest rumors, and these were _doozies_.

"Ok so _Daria _is now an Alien Sex Goddess who is going to steal the skins of all the guys on the football team _and _make them into Communists?" Brooke asked sweetly to the other two freshmen girls, also emphasizing Daria's name for them since they called her 'Dora' nine times (as per Brooke's count).

"Uh, yeah Brooke, that's what all those rumors have her being." One of the girls said, Brooke couldn't remember either one of their names.

"You do realize how crazy that sounds, right?" Brooke asked them, and then getting one look at their faces realized that to them, it didn't sound so crazy after all.

"Yikes!" Brooke thought, trying to figure out how to do damage control for something this epically insane and not able to come up with an answer.

* * *

At lunch, the Alien Love Goddesses, Daria and Jane were sitting with Ethan and everyone else while Brooke gave them the lowdown.

"Wow," Jane managed to croak, having already consumed fourteen cups of coffee that day and it still wasn't quite enough, "Just… Wow…"

Daria simply yawned and took another bite of the school's barely edible food and said, "I'm thinking the pink slime is in liberal use today."

"Please don't remind me about that, I'm eating this!" Kelly exclaimed, the memories of Daria and Jane explaining the details of how inedible meat was made fit for human consumption and served at High Schools emerging, spoiling her appetite.

"Ok, fair enough." Daria said simply while crushing her empty milk carton.

"Um, Daria," Brooke said gently, "I don't think you or Jane understands this, but people _believe_ these rumors!"

"So?" Daria asked, already bored to tears.

"Well outside of popularity, what if someone that is crazy believes them and decides to do something… Bad?"

Jane managed to raise her head from her coffee mug and muttered, "Dance… rumors… dead… in water."

"Huh?" Brooke and Kelly both said at the same time.

Daria sighed rose from the table and said, "Follow me to the gym."

* * *

"Woah!" Brooke and Kelly breathed together at what they were seeing already strung up all across the school's gym.

"How did you talk them into this?" Brooke asked while craning her head to get a better angle of one of the painted drapes.

"Coach Morris was convinced of the merits of an outdoor day for girl's gym by a girl on the track team that owed Jane a favor." Daria said in explanation.

"Ms. Li is in the dark, as is the rest of the Style Girls, besides yourself and Stacy." Daria said the last to Brooke.

"So you gonna narc to Quinn, Brooke?" Kelly asked only half-jokingly.

"Are you kidding?" Brooke replied with a big grin, "I want to take a picture of her face when she arrives with her dates, I'll get Ethan to talk Ted into putting in the yearbook!"

"I think we are rubbing off on you Brooke." Daria replied with a Mona Lisa grin.

* * *

Ethan glanced at Josh and took full advantage of the Substitute in DeMartino's class freaking out, courtesy of Kevin's stupidity and whispered, "I think after school I'll be making a trip to Axl's, you interested in being there with me?"

"Hell yes." Josh answered, giving one of his biggest smiles and using what was left of the teacher's screaming fest to kiss his boyfriend and to hell with what anyone else thought.

When one of the more squeamish students tried to complain, both Andrea and Brooke took the side of their friends and said that they didn't see anything.

The sub was forced to take their word over the other student, though it did seem begrudging on his part, but Ethan, Josh, Brooke, and Andrea could have cared less.

* * *

Daria Morgendorffer was already waiting at the foot of the stairs when, right on time, the doorbell rang, and ignored her father yelling, "Quinn your dates are here."

She went to the door and answered it herself to reveal a boy with short cut and combed brown hair, sea green eyes, and very non-descript clothes, holding a small book.

"You didn't dress up." Tom Sloane teased, knowing full well that Daria had said not to bother dressing up in anything other than his regular clothes.

Daria was wearing her usual skirt, a (new) blue shirt, combat boots, had skipped the coat, and with her new glasses she looked… Ok, in fact pretty damn good.

"Neither did you." She teased right back as Jake Morgendorffer reached the door and seeing Daria talking to a guy, scratched his head and walked away confused.

Quinn however came down the stairs while playing with her scarf and took one look at Tom and squealed, "EWW! Not in a million years!" and stomped back upstairs.

"So are we going to the Dance and then pizza afterward?" Tom asked while offering his arm, ignoring Quinn as though she didn't exist.

"Yup," Daria answered back, doing her best to suppress the butterflies in her belly and failing badly, but she took his arm and said, "We're not dancing by the way."

"Of course," Tom replied sweetly.

"I don't dance."

"Neither do I." Tom replied once more in the same tone.

"But feel free to mock the anarchic death spiral of western civilization." Daria answered with some of her old spark back.

"No problem." Tom said as they strolled away from the Morgendorffer residence and to the most beat up looking car that Daria had ever seen.

"It's no pinto." Tom said as Daria did a double take at the vehicle.

"Of course not, you have to hit those in order to make an explosion." She retorted, making Tom laugh and causing her to blush and smile.

"And we're off!" Tom said as he opened the door for Daria and within a few minutes of fighting with his car, Tom got it started and headed towards Lawndale High to see if the school was as bad as Ethan and Daria had made it out to be.

* * *

It was Mack's first time at the Zon, and even in his grungier clothes he felt out of sorts, but he felt like drinking and not with the idiots on the football team that he usually hung out with.

"Why do I hang out with the guys anyway?" Mack found himself thinking, "They're extremely full of themselves, most of them are dumb as bricks, and the way they behave."

He thought along those lines, about the antics in the locker room, the pranks, the snapped towels, the childish games of grab-ass, and the endless talk about women.

It was enough to make him ask the bartender for whiskey shots, and the Zon being the Zon he was obliged without a moment's thought.

"Didn't feel like the dance man?" a familiar voice said as the last person Mack expected to see at the Zon sat down next to him and ordered the same.

"Yeah." Mack replied before downing a shot.

"Break ups suck." Rex Attor answered while waiting for his own whisky shots.

"Yeah." Mack said again like a broken record.

"Just remember man, you're not the only one dealing with the shit life shovels on to you." Rex answered simply before downing his first shot.

"Wow, your maudlin and still sober." Mack observed before saying never mind at the look of confusion on Rex's face.

Rex grinned in order to get past the confusion and simply replied, "I don't know about Maud, but I've been going through some crap too man, but nothing a little booze couldn't fix, right?"

"Yeah," Mack replied before ordering another round, "Nothing that can't be fixed by a little public intox."

"Nothing at all…"

* * *

Skylar Feldman's black sports car pulled up at the first available parking space at Lawndale High, they were a bit early but if the way the parking lot was filling up was any indication, the Lawndale Alien Bolshevik Dance was in fully swing.

In the passenger side of the car was his date, Brooke Tanner, dressed to the nines and still feeling smug about the little idea that had occurred to her after Daria showed her and Kelly the gym decorations.

"After all the best way to get rumors to stop is to start an even bigger one of your own." Brooke thought to herself once more, proud of what she had done.

What she did was simple, she went straight to Tori Jericho after the sneak peak and told her that all those Communist and Alien rumors had been started in order to get people hyped up for the dance, which was using said Alien Commie thingy's as a theme.

Then by slipping a mention that Kelly had been with her at the time, Brooke just sat back and watched Tori ask Kelly about what she had seen in the gym, to which Kelly gave honest answers.

It was all over the school in an hour.

"And now, here we are." Brooke whispered to herself just as Skylar got around to opening her door for her, offering an arm, and the pair strolled towards the gym for a fun night.

* * *

"I'm impressed that you braved a high school dance to support the arts." Jane said with much less exhaustion than before, but she still had a cup of steaming hot coffee in her hands.

"And you brought a date…" Jane added with a very slight smile of her red lips.

"It's not a date!" Daria said insistently while Tom added his agreement to it, and introduced himself with good measure.

Jane just laughed that off, and enjoyed seeing Daria continue to issue denials, it was so easy to get her goat about stuff like this.

But then Daria noticed who was DJ-ing the affair, "You made _Upchuck _the DJ?" she asked while Tom craned his neck to see where Daria was pointing.

"It was Stacy's idea," Jane said defensively, "It got him out of circulation, plus he's done stuff like this before so…"

"He also volunteered." A perky voice popped up from behind them, and a quick turn revealed that it was none other than Stacy Rowe herself with her boyfriend, Joey Black in tow.

They were dressed in the best and ready to have fun, but Stacy couldn't resist getting in a word and a sympathetic question to Jane to see if she was ok.

"Couldn't be better." Jane replied while holding up her coffee cup.

"Great!" Stacy cheered before dragging Joey off to the dance floor.

Daria, Jane, and Tom took in the entire scope of the event, it looked like all of Lawndale High had turned out to dance, Upchuck was playing some pretty impressive music, the flashing lights, and adding ambience was Jane's twisted decorations.

"I have to admit that, for a high school event, this isn't so bad." Jane conceded.

Daria gave her a look and asked, "Who are you and what have you done with Jane Lane?"

"She'll be back once the coffee kicks in."

Daria just made a sound before noticing that Tom was looking at the latest couple to come in with his jaw quite dropped.

"_Pee Wee_?!" he exclaimed.

And sure enough, Stephen Pierson-Wells II had come in, wearing his full Fielding Prep uniform, arm-in-arm with a girl who had pink hair, a shredded purple belly shirt, black jeans, nice sneakers, a couple gold bracelets, and a very large smile.

"I have to hand it to her, even as a rock n' roller, Sandi Griffin can land a catch." Jane was forced to concede once more.

"Well she's cute, there's different standards for cute people." Daria snarked.

"You mean, no standards, right?" Tom added in reply, getting both girls to laugh, he waved to Stephen, who when he noticed waved back and gave two-thumbs up at what he thought were Tom's two girlfriends, before Stephen and Sandi went off to dance the night away.

The trio headed to the bleachers to sit down for a moment, and watch a pretty a damn good party happen right in front of them.

* * *

Josh Decker grinned at Ethan and asked, "You ready?"

"Always my man." Ethan replied with a flash of his pearly whites.

The duo strolled through the doors, and while no one took any special note, beyond noticing that they hadn't dressed up, there was one small change.

Ethan was wearing shorts in lieu of his usual jeans, better to show off his new acquisition, and to give it some air.

On his right calf, freshly inked into his skin courtesy of Axl, was an image of an evil Buddha, giving the devil horns, sitting on a dragon, done up in black and white but surrounded by red and yellow flames.

"Let's dance!" Josh yelled to Ethan above the music and the pair joined the throng just in time for Upchuck to roar on the microphones.

"And if you luscious lovelies out there are wondering what effect you have on Charles Ruttheimer III why... you make me want to shout!"

The song 'Shout' by Otis Day and the Knights bellowed out from the speakers, and the ecstatic throng did their best to do the dance.

* * *

"Look there's Ted and Robert." Daria said while pointing them out, Ted was doing the dance perfectly while his larger partner in crime was struggling to find a rhythm.

Any rhythm.

Tom glanced back at the doors and pointed out an unheard, but hysterical scene play out right before their eyes.

Quinn Morgendorffer had arrived fashionably late, dressed to the times, and had two dates in tow, but she had first freaked out at the decorations, then when her scarf fell off due to her jerking motions, it revealed the biggest boil on her neck that anyone had ever scene.

"Wow." Daria said in awe as her sister ran off into the night crying, her two dates running behind her to keep up.

"Ethan told me about her," Tom said after they fully enjoyed Quinn's latest humiliation, "She's the one that outed him, right?"

"Yeah, not intentionally, but she's the one that did it." Jane explained, her face revealing that she was still found the memory distasteful at best.

Not liking this line of discussion, Daria began to look around again, she caught the eyes of the only other people currently sitting down, a pair of twins who looked curious, but spotting Tom simply gave her polite waves and looked back at the crowd.

"Well I say we should get out…" Daria began before the doors to the gymnasium thudded open so loudly that it cut above the music, Upchuck stopped the beat and everyone stared at the sight.

It was Mr. DeMartino, his right eye bulging, full of piss and fury, and looking like he was ready to kill.

"ALRIGHT!" He roared, "I JUST CONVINCED THOSE DOGCATCHERS FROM IMMIGRATION THAT I AM NOT AN ILLEGAL ALIEN, BUT NOW I JUST HAVE ONE QUESTION."

"WHO TOLD THEM I WAS?!"

* * *

Ethan and Josh just happened to be near Ms. Barch and distinctly heard her mutter, "Dammit!"

* * *

The silence in the room was broken, not by a return to music, but sounds of chanting outside, curious several students began to filter out to see what was up.

Which turned out to be a small crowd of protestors on the school parking lot, some wearing ridiculous costumes of stereotypical alien garb, others in street clothes, wielding homemade signs which said things (mostly misspelled) about the 'alien love goddesses'.

And the most prominent displays had pictures of Daria and Jane with red x's through them.

Artie the Pizza Guy was in the foreground on a small microphone that was losing power, ranting about how they tried to steal his skin.

This lasted until the cops showed up a few minutes and threatened the nerdy protests with Tasers, they scattered like vultures around roadkill with a semi-truck plowing towards them at 70 miles an hour.

* * *

"Wow, I didn't know that Alien Love Goddesses wore glasses and combat boots." Tom teased Jane and Daria as they wove their way through the confused crowds in order to leave before things got any weirder.

"Hmm… I think we should be upset, right Jane?" Daria asked as she got a closer look at the abandoned protest signs.

Jane kicked one with her foot, revealing that one of the nerds had drawn them as the alien love goddesses in skimpy uniforms and pointing ray guns.

"I dunno, we look pretty damn good."

Daria sneered, but when Tom whispered to her that he thought _she _looked good, Daria blushed and smiled at the same time.

Jane totally noticed and was working on ways to dig at her friend while they headed to Pizza Prince to cap off the night.

* * *

Snow began to fall by the time Sandi and Stephen reached the Griffin house, for some reason not even a freak snow storm in the middle of autumn could cool their adore.

"You sure your Dad won't hear us?" Stephen whispered to Sandi while they tried to open the door and grope each other at the same time.

"Nah," Sandi whispered back, "He's at some wussy seminar and my brothers are staying with their friend, Brian Taylor, we have the house to ourselves… for the weekend."

"And you buddy boy are getting lucky tonight." Sandi added with a wink that she thought was sexy, and to an inexperienced guy like Stephen it was sexy.

Very, very sexy indeed.

* * *

Tom Griffin in the meanwhile was the Emo-Itive Men's Weekend Retreat, listening to the latest man finish his sob story and he broke down.

"Why won't Katie love me?!" the grown adult sobbed and snot shot out his nose.

"It's ok Wind," Timothy O'Neill, the councilor for the retreat said in soothing tones, "Just let it all out."

Wind Lane had no problem with that, his lank off-white hair streaming across his face, his scrawny frame wheezing with every breath as he sobbed about the latest wife that had apparently abandoned him.

Several other men present looked at him with contempt, and they were all the types that went to retreats like this.

Not Tom Griffin, no sir! He did the 'manly' thing and went over to Wind and hugged him and poured out his own sob story.

Within five minutes everyone was sick of Wind and Tom trying to top one another on misery.

"My wife cheated on me!"

"My wife died right in front of me!"

"The last three might not have even been legal marriages!"

"The mistress I was seeing dumped me after my wife's will revealed I wouldn't get the money!"

"That's right," O'Neill said soothingly, "Just let it out."

Over and over again.

* * *

Mack Mackenzie groaned like a zombie and woke up, his head apparently having been beaten with a jackhammer the night before and he muttered something completely incoherent while his eyes tried to open up.

That's when reality hit him, he wasn't in his house.

"Where the fuck…" he began before he heard a door open and he tried to move his head as fast as he could to see who was coming in.

It was Rex Attor, wearing a maroon bathrobe, carrying a glass of water and some toast.

"Morning Mack," Rex said in greeting nonchalantly, "Back from the dead I see."

"Where am I?" Mack began to ask before Rex looked at him funny and incomprehensively before it clicked.

"Oh right, you don't remember much do you? Well it was a wild night."

Some images flashed in Mack's head from the Zon, they had done countless shots of whiskey, they had talked about… something… There were images of dancing, of him dancing _with _Rex.

Then they had left, gone to a park, Mack had thrown up… Then Rex had given him some mouth wash…

Then Mack started to remember some of the stuff he had said, and had done.

"Rex…" he began to ask while trembling, "Did we… do it?"

"Yeah man," Rex answered happy as a clam, "We totally did."

All Mack could think to say was, "Holy shit!"

Then he did the only thing he could think of, he managed to get out of the bed, headed towards Rex's bedroom window, opened it and threw up the booze from the night before that wasn't already gone.

"Holy shit." Was Mack's first coherent thought after that as Rex pulled him away from the window and sat him back down on the bed.

"I'm gay."

**THE END**

* * *

_Notes: Some Lines taken from 'The Lawndale File' and 'Daria Dance Party'_


	6. Chapter 6: Loud Desperation

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 6 Loud Desperation**

Ethan Yeager and Josh Decker sat side by side in front of the Yeager's TV set in the living room, the Channel 7 News was wrapping up the latest news story.

"I still can't believe it." Ethan said thinking out loud as the last sound bites of Ms. Li's announcement played just before they cut back to the news room.

"I know," Josh replied while shaking his head in disbelief, "She's actually doing it, she's actually _fucking _doing it."

Ethan scratched his chin and then asked, "What do you think would be worse, Ms. Li as Principal or Ms. Li as our Congressional representative."

Josh just whistled and said, "Tough call chief."

Ethan would have said more, but the landline rang, cutting the conversation short, Josh sat watching commercials play, not really paying attention to anything until he heard Ethan's voice become more worried and heard him say.

"Sure man, come right on over."

Ethan went back over to the couch and sat down, Josh glanced at him and noticed that his boyfriend seemed worried.

"What's up man?" Josh asked, concerned by the sudden change in demeanor.

"Mack's coming over to talk." Ethan said in a monotone that he rarely used anymore, "Something's happened and it doesn't sound good."

* * *

Tori Jericho finished giving her best, and really only true friend, Rene Glass a basic summary of the contents of her 19 computer disk collection of every dirty secret of Principal Li's that she could get on short notice before they fell into the memory hole.

"Whoa." Was all Rene could come up with for a response.

"Yeah," Tori replied with a wry grin, "That's was what I said the first go around when I looked at all of it as a whole."

"This is really whoa," Rene stated, "I mean we all kinda knew that Ms. Li was corrupt, but _this?!"_

It caused both girls to fall over laughing for a few minutes before they righted themselves and Tori took the last disk out of her computer and put it back in it's case.

"So what do you think I should do?" Tori asked Rene, clearly torn about what to do with this treasure trove of information.

"Well…" Rene began before she paused to think some more.

"Well what?" Tori asked, failing to keep the desperation from her voice.

"Well," Rene tried again, "According to what I've read, Ms. Li doesn't have to resign to run for office during the primary, at least in this state."

"Ok." Tori replied quietly, trying to weigh her options.

"However if she makes it to the general election, she has to, at minimum take a leave of absence, which means that someone else will be in charge of the school in the meanwhile."

Tori sucked in a breath and asked, "So if I leak this during the general election and word reaches her of who did it, she can't touch me, right?"

"I wish I could say yes to that Tori, but I don't know that for sure." Rene replied simply, failing to keep her own worries from her facial expressions.

"But no matter what, Ms. Li has got to go, even more so now than before." Rene added while pointing at the pile of cases, reach containing enough damning evidence to destroy four or five political careers.

Tori nodded and took a drink of mineral water from a nearby bottle for courage and said, "Ok, I'll leak this… But I'll need to get the timing right, otherwise…"

Rene nodded in agreement to that and suggested that Tori talk to her parents about all this first, "Since they'll probably have to get a good lawyer for you if and when everyone finds out who was behind the leak."

Tori nodded and then had a sudden brainstorm, but kept it to herself for the moment, intending to talk to a girl that she _knew _would have the right answers.

Even if she was so, _unpopular_.

* * *

Mack finished telling Ethan and Josh as much as he and Rex had been able to piece together from the night before, and once he stopped talking seemed much smaller than the confident jock normally was.

Silence filled the room like a biblical flood.

Ethan decided to be brave and said, "Well I'd recommend staying away from what they serve at the Zon, at least until you can handle your booze better."

Mack gave a weak laugh, but it was a laugh.

"I have to admit that I'm at a loss here Mack," Ethan continued, "I mean you said that you were more or less willing at the time."

"Yeah." Mack replied as weakly as his laugh from before.

"And Rex was too, more or less." Ethan said, not letting his own personal lack of surprise at Rex's little secret enter his voice.

"Yeah."

"But, more for you than him, once the alcohol wore off, the whole thing seemed less like a choice than it did then."

Mack sighed and said, "Yeah." For a third time.

Josh quietly handed Mack the soda he had been drinking earlier and Mack took a big gulp of it before setting the can back down.

"It's kinda like… I mean I do remember saying that I thought that Rex was… Hot." Mack blushed when he said that last word.

"And I remember feeling better after he gave me that small bottle of scope after I threw up."

"And why does Rex carry around bottles of mouth wash?" Josh's inner voice asked him.

"Then we wound up at his place but I don't remember how we got there," Mack continued, "Neither of us remembers who started it, but I do remember trying to rip his shirt off because he couldn't get it over his head fast enough."

Mack gave his first smile since the morning he woke up in Rex's bed, naked as the day he was born, and confronted with the full truth that he hadn't even suspected of himself with full force.

"But that morning after… God that was so awkward."

"Why was Rex so chipper anyway?" Josh asked, curious about that part.

"He had woken up an hour before, ate and showered while I slept more of it off than he needed too." Mack answered, "I've seen him at parties and after parties before, and the bastard can drink and recover better than anyone else I've ever seen."

Silence began to fill the room again until Ethan thought of something that was either completely crazy or a good idea and suggested it.

Mack sighed again but said, "Ok, I guess that might help… But only if you guys are there, I don't want anything crazy to happen, at least without witnesses."

"Ok fair enough." Ethan replied with a small grin.

Josh in the meanwhile wasn't able to respond, stunned by what Ethan had just suggested and Mack had signed off on.  
"Rex and Mack, here, together, talking to us about all this?!"

All he could do was utter a helpless, "Eep!" and make a beeline for the bathroom for some alone time so he could stare at the tiles in the Yeager's bathroom and try to clear his thoughts.

* * *

"I have got to get away from those people." Jane Lane said to Daria as they walked to the Morgendorffer residence, carrying a small collection of Jane's personal possessions.

"Hmm… So my saying that they're family and you should support them in their time of need wouldn't change your mind?" Daria asked in a deadpan, clearly being sarcastic.

"You couldn't bribe me enough in order to get me to deal with Wind's endless crying, Penny's pathetic attempts at speaking Spanish to the Finance Minister of Costa Rica, my Mother yammering on about butterflies, and don't get me started on Dad rinsing his prints in our toilets."

Daria just made a snort and replied, "And why doesn't your father have a proper dark room?"

Jane Lane just smirked and said, "Something about getting all his best pictures from filtered water that's been cycled."

"Too much information." Daria replied and began to move faster, hoping to outrun the horrible images that came to mind.

But it wasn't going to work.

* * *

When they got to within striking distance of Daria's house, Tom's extremely beat up Pinto rolled up the main drag and the man himself, Tom Sloane called out, asking Daria if she and her friend needed a lift.

"We're only a block away Tom." Daria replied sheepishly.

"I'll meet you there, then." Tom replied with a small grin and drove the few feet needed to find a parking spot in front of her home.

"Yeah, many moons from now when the harvest comes in." Jane snarked, bringing another grin to Daria's face.

She had been doing that a lot lately since she started to see Tom, though she still denied that they were dating and were 'Just Friends'.

"Yeah, and Hitler didn't mean to burn all the Jews, he only wanted to test his EZ Bake Oven." Jane snarked in her thoughts and headed on up to the door and hoped that Daria's negotiating skills were on par enough to get her into the guest bedroom.

Or else she'd have to go back to Casa Lane and actually _deal _with her family, a horrifying thought.

* * *

Rex Attor was sitting on the edge of his bed, balancing a bottle of Jack on his knee and glancing at a phone laying off to the side every so often, trying to work up the nerve to call… anyone.

Rex sucked in a breath and tried to bring himself to pick it up but his nerve failed him, for the millionth time.

"Who the fuck can I even talk too?!" he thought to himself again, since his list of options was quite limited, and he wasn't sure if they could help.

There was Bob, the first guy who he had come out too, but besides the fact that he was heterosexual, Rex suspected that all he would get was some sort of psychological exam.

And he didn't need tests dammit! He needed some sort of… something.

He was sure of that much.

Rex had wondered about talking to that guy the Sloane had introduced him too, Terry Wicklemore, but they had only talked twice, and Terry was nice but, well…

"He's just way too fruity for my tastes." Rex thought to himself once more, even though he thought Terry was kinda cute, his personality was a bit much for him to take, at least at this stage in the game.

So Rex just sat there with an unopened bottle of booze and a phone, torn to bits over who to talk too, even though he _really _suspected he should talk to Mack.

"But I'm probably the last person he wants to see." Rex had acknowledged to himself a few hours prior after he had gotten Mack to clean up, given him back his clothes, then spent an hour trying to piece together the night before.

Then Mack had just left without another word to him.

The phone rang.

Rex jumped up in shock and dropped the bottle on the floor, (luckily though the glass was thick and the carpet plush so it didn't break) and tried to steady his shaking hands as he went for the phone.

Then he heard the last voice he had been expecting to hear.

"Ethan?!" Rex said in pure shock.

"Hello Rex."

"How'd you get this…?"

"Mack gave me the number."

"Oh." Rex's voice went completely flat, almost like Daria's normal speaking tone.

"Don't freak out or anything, and emphasis on not freaking out but Mack came over and told us everything."

"Us?" Rex said while twisted fantasies from his worst homophobic nightmares emerged about secret gay militias and recruiters, but he did his best to beat them back down and focus on the present.

"Me and Josh."

"Oh." And that helped with the beating back of the weird thoughts.

Rex then added, "Well I guess it's obvious now, I mean I've begun to actually come to terms with this in the last few weeks, but I guess I screwed that up too."

"Rex…" Ethan began before he was cut off by Rex continuing to talk.

"I mean, I hated myself, really hated myself, and I did things that I… Regret. I've tried to make things right and now I just gone and fucked that up too. So feel free to laugh at the bully who turned out to be the thing he hated, I'm sure everyone else will."

"Rex I need you to listen to me for a second." Ethan said very calmly after Rex finished his rant.

"Ok."

"Mack wants to talk."

There was dead silence on the other end of the line.

"Come over to my house in a couple of hours and… Well to be honest I'm not sure _what's _going to happen but I promise that I'll do what I can to help you."

There was a long pregnant pause before Rex managed to croak, "Thank you." Like a man dying of thirst and being offered a cup of pure, clean water.

* * *

Tom Griffin sighed at the latest letter from Glenfield Middle School about his son Sam, he had been meaning to talk to his boys about everything that their Principal and teachers had been complaining about but every time he tried, he wound up wimping out.

"No not wimping out, I just got busy." Tom said to himself, not even sure who he was fooling because it certainly wasn't himself.

Ever since their mother had died, the boys had changed, in that now instead of fighting each other, they had become fond of fighting the other tough kids, and they had both gotten their hair spiked and dyed unnatural colors.

Sam had even snuck off to Axl's one night and gotten several ear piercings and his eyebrow as well, though how he had paid for it or who had taken him still remained a mystery to his father (hint their names rhyme with 'Tob' and 'Fandi').

Thankfully for Tom the phone rang, breaking him away from the thoughts that were reminding him about how much he sucked.

The person on the other line was one of the few men he had ever met who sucked even worse than he did.

"Wind!" Tom Griffin said with joy, "What's going on?"

Then, in between Wind's incessant sobbing, Tom learned that his friend from the Emo-Itive Men's Weekend Retreat was in town visiting relatives and had just been called by his current wife, Katie, who now wanted a divorce.

And Wind wanted to go drinking with someone so he wouldn't be alone.

"No problem." Tom replied, glad for an excuse to get out of the house, Sandi had just started playing some of that Rock music he hated (this time it was Slayer), and Sam and Chris were in their room with that creepy friend of theirs Brian Taylor.

A night out with someone worse off than he sounded pretty damn good.

* * *

Tori Jericho then finished with, "And that's the end of the summary."

She then glanced around the strange room nervously, she had only seen glimpses off it during those times when Quinn had hosted the meetings of the Style Girls Club.

It was unlike anything that Tori had experienced, or ever wanted too again, the entire room was padded and the windows had bars like an insane asylum.

There were actual _human bones _in a display case!

The posters were of foreign films in languages that she didn't even recognize, and the only normal things in the room, the bed, computer, books, all seemed even more warped and twisted to her in this den of madness.

Daria Morgendorffer took a moment to process everything she had just been told by Lawndale's resident gossip queen.

"Wow." Was Daria's first word on the matter.

Tori sighed and said, "I was hoping that you had more to say, I mean I need a second opinion here."

"Second opinion?" Daria asked, "Who's the first?"

"My best friend, Rene." Tori answered before she realized what she had said and clamped her hands over her mouth.

"Don't worry Tori," Daria replied "I'm not going to rat either one of you out, in fact I wish to say that I'm impressed beyond comprehension."

"What you've pulled off Tori… Goddamn!"

That goddamn was enough to make Tori giggle nervously for a few moments before she pulled herself back together.

"Yeah but now… I mean I know this needs to be made public but how do I do it correctly?"

Daria sighed and decided to let Tori in on a little secret of her own.

Daria informed her about Congressman Sacks, the hidden cameras, and the video editing.

"Woah!" was all Tori could say, instinctively feeling the pull of the gossip chain at this level of dirt.

But fortunately for all involved, her better angels reminded her of her own precarious situation, so she kept her hands clinched to the side where they couldn't get at her three cell phones.

Daria then said, "Give me an hour or so to think about a game plan, because we need to make sure that this leak doesn't come back to haunt you, or now me. And causes maximum damage to the Principal of Laaaandalllle Hiiiighhhh."

Her mimicry of Ms. Li's reverential tone for saying the school's name was pretty spot on, bringing a smile to the popular girls face.

"Ok Daria," Tori Jericho replied, "I'll wait in the living room, if anyone asks I'm waiting for Quinn about Style Girl's business."

"Right." Daria replied, "And if anyone asks you about me, make sure to get my name wrong."

Tori giggled at that as she walked out and Daria heard her say, "I don't know why people get her name wrong, it's not _that_ hard to say or remember."

That sentence alone caused Tori Jericho's stock with Daria Morgendorffer to go up, not by a crazy amount, but it did go up.

* * *

Downstairs in the Morgendorffer Home, Tori made herself at home by sitting on the couch and reaching for the remote, then she heard voices so she paused and listened.

"Yeah Trent." A girl's voice said quietly, "I'm staying at Daria's until they all leave."

"Yes Trent I know that will probably be awhile but it's better than being _there."_

"Where are you going to stay?"

"Oh a gig, where? Isn't Fremont a little too far away for the Tank?"

Tori heard the girl sigh and mutter, "Whatever I guess, but since I'm staying here I can't come with, it would freak out Mr. and Mrs. M too much. Get Monique then. Ok Trent, love you bye."

Tori heard the phone disconnect and just stayed where she was seated and heard footsteps come to the living room to reveal Daria's equally unpopular friend Jane Lane.

Jane Lane noticed Tori in the Morgendorffer living room, assumed it had something to do with Quinn, and headed on up the stairs without a single word to her.

* * *

"And there I was, in the bleachers with Shaggy and Kelly as Tommy Sherman ran towards the other team's goalpost, waving to the crowd like a fool while doing it and then WHAM! He ran right smack into the goalpost." Josh said while finishing yet another can of Ultra Cola.

"Hmm… And you've had this dream for how long again?" Ethan replied while his idle mind wondered if dealing with the Mack & Rex Drama would be easier stoned.

"A couple years on and off." Josh answered while opening his seventh or eighth can.

"And this isn't like a memory thing or nothing, right?"

"Nope, never bothered to go to any football games, and in the dream me, Shaggy, and Kelly are all the ages we are now so it's not like a kid memory being regurgitated by my brain."

"Hmm…" Ethan began to think of why his boyfriend would have such a strange dream over and over again when the rarely used doorbell rang.

Ethan and Josh both sighed and went to answer it, suspecting that it could only be one of two people.

Sure enough it was one of the suspects, Rex Attor, wearing a nice black shirt, clean jeans, blue & white tennis shoes, and a gold chain.

He clearly had gone to a lot of effort to figure out what to wear, and while Ethan wasn't digging the cheesy gold chain, he had to admit that Rex did look good.

"Uh… Hi." Rex said weakly while leaning in the door frame, and at that point even Josh was forced to suppress a groan, the infamous homophobe cleaned up very well.

Ethan quietly stepped to the side and invited Rex into his house, which did cause Rex to scratch his head at the 60's retro decor.

"You'll get used to it in a minute." Ethan said quietly as Rex's eyes drank in the extremely bright colors, the peace signs, the posters, and the bizzaro mix of modern appliances amidst stuff clearly left over from Woodstock and the last Beatles Concert.

Rex sat down in a chair, while Ethan and Josh took the couch, there was a brief pause before Rex took in a deep breath to brace himself and he began to talk

"I know I said sorry before, but I don't think I… I mean I… well… I'm not sure what I mean but I'll just say I'm sorry again for all the crap I put you two through."

Rex took another breath and then continued, "I was and I guess I still am in a bad space in like, my head. I really don't know how to make it up to you guys, I've, well, I've fucked up. Big."

His face was flushed and his shoulders had hunched over in shame during this mini confession, his auburn hair hung around his face, but it failed to obscure it completely.

Ethan took in his own deep breath and plunged into uncertain depths, "Well, at least you've rejoined the human race Rex."

Rex just sighed at this, not completely sure if it was a complement or not.

A small petty part of Ethan kinda enjoyed seeing the big dumb jock squirm, but alas his parent's hippie lifestyle and philosophy had sunk into him in ways that he had failed to exorcist.

Dammit!

So Ethan did the compassionate thing and continued with, "What I mean is, you've been coming to grips with being gay, right?"

"Yeah," Rex replied softly, "I'm gay and…" Rex trailed off and just shrugged his shoulders, having nothing grand or wise to attach to that.

"And nothing Rex," Ethan replied in turn, "Being gay doesn't mean anything other than you just prefer people of the same gender rather than the opposite. It doesn't mean that anything changes, except now that you're being honest, you'll be the happier for it."

Rex sighed and said, "I thought I found it… Then the morning after came."

That brought about yet another awkward silence that was only ended by the doorbell.

There was only one other person coming over to talk.

"I'll get it." Josh said while getting up to answer the door.

"And now the real fun begins." Ethan thought to himself with a mental sigh, this was going to be a long ass day.

* * *

"I'm still not completely comfortable with Jane knowing about all this Daria." Tori said with the worry evident both on her face and in her voice.

"If you're concerned about 'narking' don't be." Daria replied calmly, "Jane and I have had a personal law of omerta for many a moon about secrets."

Tori just looked confused so Jane explained it more simple terms, "Until Ethan came along and everyone wanted to be his friend, it was just me and Daria, we're not going to spread this around."

Tori looked a little bit relived at this, but was still nervous, so Daria decided to lay out her scheme.

The plan it turned out was relatively simple, they would monitor Li's progress in the primary, if it looked like she would win it, then they would just wait until she did, then the day of her big victory all Tori would have to do was make an anonymous drop of the disks to the local media and then just sit back and watch the fireworks.

If it looked like Ms. Li would lose, then they would just leak the disks early and watch their Principal self-destruct on all fronts.

Either way it would be a win of epic proportions, and it would be untraceable to Tori or anyone else.

"I like this!" Tori said with a happy smile returning to her face.

"Thank you for the help Daria," the popular girl added, "You know, your way cooler than people give you credit for."

"Thanks, I guess." Daria replied while adjusting her glasses a bit, unknowingly causing Tori to actually notice Daria's new set of glasses with the small square lenses.

"No problem," Tori replied in turn, "And I like those glasses, they're much nicer than your old ones."

And with that Tori then promised she'd do Daria a few favors every now and then for the help and left.

"Did Tori Jericho just _complement you?"_ Jane asked, stunned by that possibility.

"Yeah… I think she did." Daria answered, quite amazed herself at this turn of events.

"Whoa!"

"Yeah, whoa!"

* * *

Sam Griffin looked down at his brother, Chris, while he was trying to calm down, his nerves at what he was about to have done were starting to get to him.

"Chill bro." Sam said with a very relaxed pose, since he was reclining in one of the chairs in Axl's shop, "It doesn't hurt that bad, it's just a moment of intense pain and then it goes away, just like that!" And then he snapped his fingers.

"Like that?" Chris replied, desperately trying to cling to this thread of hope.

"Like that." Sam assured him with a big grin.

Axl in the meanwhile was picking out the piercings that Sandi's brother wanted to get and doing his best to hide his amusement that the little brother was reassuring the big brother about getting his piercing work done.

"Reminds me of me when I was a kid." Axl thought to himself at the memory of being 15 and reassuring his dumb 19 year old brother that the nipple piercings that he was about to do for him wouldn't hurt that bad.

It had hurt so much worse than that, much, much worse.

* * *

Janet Barch wasn't feeling her best, having just done another tequila slammer, and ordered another round right after that.

"All men suck!" she slurred to herself, disgusted at what she had caught O'Neill doing when she paid him a surprise visit to his apartment with all those plants.

He had been watching football, a MAN's sport for MEN! No doubt to simulate rape against women or something.

She had left in disgust after giving him a piece of her mind, and her foot in his crouch, and ignored his lies about 'studying to talk to the sports players at Lawndale'.

Now she was in a bar, trying to forget, and thinking about trying to locate her ex-husband, the BASTARD!

He had had the temerity to go underground after ABANDONING HER after everything she had ever done for him!

She heard sounds from the other end of the bar, it sounded like…

"MEN!" Barch's inner voice roared at her and she turned her head to see the threat.

Then she kept staring.

"Why won't Katie love me!" Wind Lane whined as he nursed his first beer, already feeling the effects since he was a really pathetic light-weight drinker.

"Of course she loves you Wind." Tom Griffin reassured his friend while giving him a pat on the back, "She's probably just… going through some emotional issues that require some privacy."

"You think so?"

"Sure!" Tom replied with cheer and clearly lying through his teeth, but Wind bought it lock, stock, and barrel.

Janet Barch's glare of pure malevolence had slowly shifted to curiosity, she kept her gaze upon the two MALES nearby, wondering if this was an act or…

"Are they, _sensitive_ males?" Janet asked herself, feeling a slight stir in her loins at the possibility of having met a MALE that could truly understand her.

Or could be made to understand her, which ever worked better.

* * *

"Uh Jayne…" Trent said into the cheap payphone and did his best to ignore the crying of Mystik Spiral's drummer Max and Monique's screaming in the background.

"Yeah Trent?"

"I need you to come to Fremont to post bail, we're all in jail…"

* * *

After Mack had entered and been offered a drink, the four of them sat down with Rex and Mack taking two chairs that faced each other while Ethan and Josh sat on the couch between them, effectively a demarcation zone.

For a moment, no one said a word, there was so much awkwardness filling the Yeager's living room to fill several soap operas with viable plot.

Then Rex gritted his teeth and plunged in head first and prayed to God that there was water at the bottom of this pool.

"Mack bro," Rex began in a rush, hoping to get it all out before he lost his nerve, "About last night… I'm so sorry, I fucked up and I fucked up bad and I… I don't expect you to forgive me. But, well we were both drinking and I was feeling so good and then… Well I don't remember the details but… Well we both kinda remember some of it, but…"

Rex trailed off, struggling to find something profound to say but then he sighed and simply said.

"I fucked up, and I'm sorry for it."

Mack had been sitting, facing Rex, his face as unmoving as a statue during his stream of consciousness rambling apology.

Then once Rex reached the limit of what he could articulate, Mack took a breath to calm himself and began to talk in turn.

"Rex," he began nervously, unsure of where this was going to go, "I… Well… I don't know what to say man…"

Then seeing the despair forming on Rex Attor's face, Mack then hurriedly began to babble, "No I mean it's not about the apology. It's just… This is all new to me; I mean I never suspect that I was… Gay."

Mack felt very hot for some reason and then realized why, it was the very first time that he had actually used the word gay to describe himself.

It should have felt profound, life changing in fact, and in a sense it was, but all he felt at that point was confused, uncertain, afraid.

"Mack…" Rex began before he was cut off by Mack waving his hand.

"No Rex, this isn't a bad thing… I guess, well… At least I'm being honest about, all this. But I was with Jodie for three years, I thought I loved her, but now that I'm looking at it now… I think we were just using each other, me to lie to myself, her because I was an easy guy to date for a workaholic like her."

Mack then took a large gulp of soda to wet his throat and continued, "I guess she figured it out, well hell I guess there were signs and me being an idiot didn't see them."

"Then after we broke up, when I started to think about things, I think part of me knew it all along but I wasn't acknowledging it so I tried to drink it all away, that night…"

"Then we met, and… I guess I used the booze as an excuse to… you know…"

Mack then went very quiet except for a sigh, he wasn't sure what else to say.

Ethan felt that it was time to step in, "Rex, Mack." He said in order to get their attention.

"As an observer, I would say that it takes two to tango, and before we continue I have to ask, do either one of you regret that night at all?"

Rex almost immediately said, "Only if Mack does."

Mack sat for a moment to think, but then he took his mother's advice, opened his mouth and just let his instincts take over.

"Actually… No, I don't regret it at all."

The look of relief and happiness on Rex's face after Mack said that was positively infectious.

"Ok then." Ethan said quietly, "We have a good start, now let's… Try to sort this out."

* * *

Yolanda Morris glared at the small radio in Coach Gibson's small kitchen with disgust and snapped, "Turn that crap off!"

Gibson swallowed a come-back and turned it off, not wanting to listen to one of Ms. Li's campaign commercials over what should have been a broadcast of the latest Bronco's game.

"Now let's get down to business." Morris said, now glaring at the collection of files on the table, the stats were not good.

"Ok, so now that we can't get byes for our players in, well, _any _of the teams because Li wants to become a stuck up politico, they're going to be forced to do the finals on their own." Morris said, more to herself than the other room's main occupant.

"Yes," Gibson replied curtly, "However you and I both know that most of them, well, they're not that smart. It's why they _get _byes in the first place."

"So we have to figure out a way for them to actually learn this stuff, and quick!"

Both coaches sighed, a sense of doom and gloom falling upon them as the four horsemen of the sportsapocalypse stirred in their sleep.

"What about tutoring?!" Morris said in a sudden rush as the idea struck her.

Gibson reminded her that there weren't enough tutors in the Lawndale county area to cover all of the members of Lawndale High's sports teams.

Morris fell silent, the doom now hanging within a few inches of their heads before Gibson had a brainstorm of his own.

"The brains."

"What?!"

"The brains at Lawndale, we get them to tutor them."

"Yes!" Morris breathed through her teeth, then a thought occurred, "Wait, how do we get them to do it without them blabbing?"

"We get Ms. Li to pay them for the service."

Coach Morris snorted, "Oh please Principal Cheapskate would never spend precious money on something like that."

At that, Coach Gibson gave a wry grin, "Oh I think she will, once we point out how bad it would look for her candidacy if it surfaced that all of a sudden the bulk of the Jocks at her school failed their finals after doing well in previous years."

Now it was Coach Morris's turn to smile, and it wasn't a very pleasant one either.

"Oh this is good, damn good!" she breathed through her teeth.

Gibson then went to his fridge and cracked open two beers and offered one to his fellow co-worker in order to toast this idea in the proper way.

"I can't wait to see the look on Li's face when she realizes that she doesn't have a choice." Morris cackled after taking a large chug of beer.

"I can't either." Gibson replied with his own grin and the warm feeling that only alcohol could give him filling him to the brim.

It was good to be a Coach at Lawndale High again.

* * *

"Ok, so I have a question Jane." Daria asked after she put the phone back on the hook, "How did Trent get to Fremont so fast after he _just _called a couple hours ago to tell you about the gig."

"He called once he reached Fremont to tell me about it." Jane replied while idily playing with a small rubber ball by rolling it between her hands.

"From what cellphone that he couldn't afford in a million years?" Daria couldn't resist asking with a bite of cattiness.

"Monique's cellphone that she got as a gift last Christmas from her rich uncle." Jane replied while continuing to play with the rubber ball.

"Oh."

Daria then sighed and apologized.

"Don't be sorry," Jane replied again, "If I were you I'd be asking way more questions than this."

Daria gave her friend a small smile and said, "At least we'll be going with Tom, so the trip will be enjoyable either way."

Jane now got to give a grin of her own, the kind of grin she normally reserved for teasing Daria about the crush she had on Trent.

"Yeah… Friendship enjoyable."

Then she got to enjoy seeing Daria blush at that simple statement, she was so easy sometimes.

"But I wonder how Tom's rust bucket will make it to Fremont." Jane pondered, deciding to build Daria back up with a more serious question.

"He said he would take his Dad's car."

"Oh." Jane replied, wondering what kind of vehicle Tom would be showing up in, and hoping that at least it wouldn't leak if it rained.

* * *

Mack dialed the very familiar number from the Yeager's landline, he had asked Ethan for permission after Rex had left.

It had been a very draining hour of conversation, yet it had been a much needed conversation as well.

But now Mack needed to talk to someone else, someone who was owed an update.

"Hello?" Jodie Landon asked from the other end of the line.

"Hey." Mack said.

"Oh… Hey Mack, what's up?"

"Jodie…" Mack began, "I, well, remember what we talked about? The part about me figuring it all out."

"… Yeah."

"Well I think I have."

"Oh, ok."

"And… Can we get a pizza, as friends I mean?"

"Sure Mack, you want to go to Pizza Prince?"

"Uh… Can it be somewhere where we won't be overheard?"

"Sure Mack, we'll hit the Pizza Joint in Oakwood, no one will know us there."

"Cool, thanks Jodie and just one more thing."

"… What?"

"I'm sorry for being a waste of your time."

"Mack, you're never a waste of anyone's time."

"… Thank you."

"Ok, so see you there in an hour?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Ok then, bye for now."

"Bye."

* * *

"I hope that Jaguar X308 doesn't leak." Jane quipped weakly as she and Daria saw the most expensive vehicle in their lives roll down Daria's street and pull up to the curb.

Tom Sloane stepped out of the driver's side door and waved the two of them over and asked what the game plan was.

"Uh… To get this car out of the neighborhood before it gets stolen." Daria managed to say very weakly, just as shocked as Jane.

Tom just laughed that off and said in a very fake Texan accent, "Then get in little ladies."

Jane snickered at that but Daria didn't respond at all but simply climbed into the passenger side door and said that they have to go to Jane's first for the bail money.

"Oh and Trent said he wanted his book of song lyrics too, so I'll grab that once we're there." Jane added before giving Tom her street address and then got to enjoy the thrill of breaking countless speed limits and reached Jane Lane's within a matter of minutes.

"Damn!" Daria breathed before shaking herself out of it and following Jane into Casa Lane, not noticing that Tom had followed them until she tried to close the door and heard him go "Ouch!" when the door hit his foot.

"Oh sorry!" Daria said, clearly having gotten over her daze, "I didn't think you were coming in."

"Meh, I didn't want to be cooped up in the car, since we'll be doing a lot of that for the next few hours." Tom replied, and noticed Daria blush when he said it.

During this, Jane had quickly scrounged up some cash from a stash and came down the stairs in a near run with a wad of money in one hand and a spiral bound notebook in the other.

"Ok I've got everything, let's get there before the _criminales _manage to hurt themselves."

"Sounds good to me." Daria snarked, bringing a small smile to Tom's eyes, which Jane took note of.

Within a few minutes, Tom's speed machine had them out of Lawndale, and left a trail of countless other motorists cursing at their dust in vain.

Jane, sitting the back caught a reflection of Daria in one of the rear view windows, for some reason she seemed very uneasy.

"Hm.. Maybe she just needs a snarkfest." Jane thought to herself before opening Trent's notebook and said, "Hey guys listen to this, it's one of Trent's new songs."

Jane then cleared her throat dramatically and began to sing, _"My heart is like an open wound that reads the tea leaves of its doom..."_

"What?!"

"You are kidding me, right?"

"Nope!" Jane said proudly and then continued to half-sing the lyrics.

Within a few minutes, she had Tom and Daria picking apart the entire song and thus they used Trent's crappy song as a means to feel better about themselves.

"And thus equilibrium is restored to the universe." Jane thought to herself, feeling very serene.

It was going to be a fun trip to Jail and back after all…

* * *

"Well Mack I'm glad for you, no really!" Jodie added when Mack adopted a look of complete disbelief at her words.

"I'm happy that you figured it out, even though I bet you wish that it hadn't happened the way it did."

"Yeah." Mack said almost as a sigh before glancing down at what was left of their pepperoni pizza at the aptly named _Pizza Joint_ in Oakwood.

"And Jodie, I want to say I'm sorry for using you, even if I wasn't aware of it at the time."

"It's ok Mack, I'm the one who should be apologizing since, well, I kinda suspected it at some level too, but I just ignored it because it was easier to stay together."

"And I want to make it up to you." Jodie added, and got to enjoy seeing Mack do a complete double take.

"What?! Um… Jodie there's nothing to make up, I think."

Jodie just chuckled at that and replied, "Well think of it as a way to make things up to each other, I've got a proposed structure for a Gay/Straight Alliance for Lawndale set up, and I was thinking on Monday we could go to Ms. Li and get it going."

"Really?!" Mack asked excitedly, "Oh wait what about your parents?"

"What about them?" Jodie asked dismissively, and then laughed at the second double take that Mack had done within a matter of minutes.

"Oh Mack, I told you, I've given up caring what they think, I dropped nearly 2/3rds of my extracurriculars and when they found out, we had that fight and now I've got Mom in my corner, Dad doesn't stand a chance."

Mack smiled at that, having not quiet believed the story when she first told it too him when they had finally broken up, but now he did.

"What about Ms. Li then, won't she try to use this for her campaign?"

"Well she is running as a Republican," Jodie noted, "However since she started the campaign she hasn't been paying as much attention to Lawndale High as she normally does, so getting her to sign something isn't that hard if you just find a way to get her to do it when she is in a rush…"

"Sounds good to me!" Mack replied just as the server arrived with the bill, while Mack reached to take it, Jodie simply said, "I'll take care of it, I insist."

* * *

Ethan felt Josh curl up against him, his soft pale skin against his own tanned hide, Josh's beautiful phoenix tattoo glistening with sweat along with the rest of his body, and Ethan's as well.

They were both in Ethan's bed, blissfully drained from the explosion of passion that had emerged between them a few hours prior, having dealt with the Rex/Mack situation as best they could, they had both needed a break.

So first Ethan had whipped up salads for the two of them based off of ingredients in his mother's kitchen, and then gone to his room to just be together, and then one thing lead to another…

"Hmm… Baby with you up against me like this I don't even need weed to feel good." Ethan moaned as he felt Josh tease his nipple with his tongue.

Josh just gave a muffled laugh against Ethan's chest and managed to say, "Yeah, but I don't see you in rehab…"

That caused the two of them to laugh, slowly at first but then building up into a crescendo that resulted in Josh falling out of Ethan's single bed.

"Oh sorry Josh!" ethan said apologetically at Josh while he tried to untangle himself out of some of the sheets that had been dragged to the white carpet with him.

"It's ok E," Josh said while rubbing his shoulder, "Just my pride got hurt is all."

Ethan gave his lover a sheepish grin and apologized again, just in time for the phone to ring.

"I'll get it," Josh said to Ethan who had clearly not wanted any such thing to happen, Josh left the room, ignoring the fact that he was completely naked and headed towards the living room and answered it.

"Hello."

"Hi, is this the Yeagers?"

"Yeah, who's this… Elsie?!" Josh said, the sound of the person on the other end finally making a connection to a hazy drug memory.

"Yup, it's me, is Ethan there?"

"Um… He's looking for his pants right now, can you tell it to me?"

"Oh, sure then." Elsie replied, trying her best not to think about the images that were popping into her head on that one.

"Well my brother just upped and went out of town with a couple of girlfriends and I was hoping Ethan could come over, since I don't have any plans this weekend and no one to talk too."

"Uh, let me ask Ethan," Josh replied and then yelled out Elsie invitation to Ethan who yelled back, "Sure!"

Then Josh heard the sound of Ethan nearly falling to the ground, he was clearly struggling to get back into his pants.

"He said sure." Josh replied into the phone.

"You can come too Josh, see you in a bit, bye!"

The line then went dead.

"Hm… Well I haven't really met the Sloane's outside of Tom and Elsie, this could be interesting." Josh thought to himself, hoping that they weren't as bad as the ones Ethan had told him about.

* * *

Sandi Griffin was arriving at the Griffin residence a bit later than she had intended, but first hitting the books at the library with Bob and his girlfriends was important for her grades and stuff.

"Now I can just go in so I can change and then meet Steve and then… well I guess we'll just wing it!" Sandi said to herself, and digging the feeling of joy and happiness at how things were turning out.

She unlocked the door and turned the handle and stepped into the house, it was darker than she expected it to be, her brother were probably out running around and her father…

"Well I hope he's asleep, it's been a long week for him at, like, work so he'll need the rest." Sandi thought to herself in a motherly sort of way, having been forced to effectively run the household for her father since mother died.

* * *

Tom Griffin wasn't asleep, he wasn't even at home, he was in a cheap motel rented out by one of the two paramours that he had discovered at the bar, well one he already knew, but the other one…

"God she's beautiful," Tom thought to himself as he looked at Janet Barch's naked figure as she slept on the bed.

Tom Griffin was lying on her left side, Wind was on her right, and the three of them had had a very enjoyable time just… exploring each other.

"It doesn't get any better than this." Tom thought as he laid his head back upon Janet's chest and enjoyed the rhythm of her heartbeat.

It was good to be alive.

* * *

"Ok so I'm going to the picnic and I'm bringing Apricots, Bear Claws, a Cracked prop skull from Hamlet, a Diving Bell… and an Everlast Padlock!" Tom Sloane said, adding his contribution for the letter 'E' then he glanced from the road to look at Daria to remind her that it was her turn.

"I'm going to the picnic and I'm bringing Apricots, Bear Claws…" Daria went down the list that she, Jane, and her _friend _Tom had created until she reached her letter and said, "A feral ferret".

Then Jane went down the list once more while glancing out the window, struggling to find inspiration for "G" until she spotted a hitchhiker and grinned and thought. "Just in time buddy boy!"

It didn't take more than a minute to reach, 'G' and Jane said, "And a grimy cowboy."

"Good one Jane-o!" Tom answered with a grin, having noticed the hitchhiker just as she said it, he was a blond handsome guy dressed in cowboy duds with a guitar slung over his back.

Tom didn't stop and ignored the cowboy's thumb and kept on driving while he recited the list, thinking of something for the letter H.

* * *

"Nice digs." Josh said with a whistle once he and Ethan got closer to the Sloane's residence in a part of Crew Neck to ritzy that not even the Taylors had the cash to live there.

"Yes it is, and I have to say I kinda like this place more than 'The Cove'." Ethan replied, putting quite a bit of contempt and disgust in 'The Cove' as he said it.

Josh just snickered, "That's because your Aunt Mildred isn't here, I hope."

They both shuddered as they reached the door and rang the bell, thankfully they were already expected so they didn't have to deal with a servant but rather Elsie herself answered the door.

"Hey Ethan, hey Josh!" She said, clearly relived at having company.

"Hey Elsie."

"Yo!"

Elsie Sloane let them in and offered to show them around, rather enjoying the chance to show off the newly redecorated Sloane manor.

Everything about the place screamed "richer than beyond your wildest dreams"; at least it did to Ethan and Josh, the first who only had experienced this sort of wealth for a few hours, the latter not at all.

But midway through the tour Elsie lead them to what Ethan assumed served as a living room of sorts in a house like this and discovered Angier and Kay Sloane already there watching the news.

"Ethan!" Kay greeted her unexpected guest in surprise, "I didn't know you were coming."

"I didn't either until half-an hour ago Aunt Kay." Ethan replied with a small smile, whatever else had happened between his Aunt and his Mom, he did rather like Kay Sloane, despite not knowing her that well.

Kay raised an eyebrow at her daughter, and Elsie filled her in, relishing the chance to tattle on her brother.

Angier just made a sound and said something about "A stern talking too". Once Tom got back from his shenanigans, whatever they might be.

"And who is this?" Kay asked politely, noticing the other boy hanging behind Ethan and Elsie.

Ethan and Elsie both stepped to the side, letting Josh come forward a bit and Ethan answered with a sense of pride, "Aunt Kay, Uncle Angier, this is Josh, the one I told you about at the Cove."

Josh Decker stood very still and very quiet, waiting for the explosion to occur.

But if it bothered either one of the Sloane's, they gave no sign of it, but Kay did sigh slightly at the sight of Josh's eyebrow piercing.

"Hello Josh," Angier said kindly, "Welcome to our humble home."

The three of them then had to endure only a few minutes of polite conversation with the elder Sloane's before they were given a polite 'out' so they could leave.

The three of them got out while the getting was good.

When they were in the safety of Elsie Sloane's very impressive room and the door was closed, but not latched on the off-chance that it would freak out her parents, Ethan asked.

"Ok, what's the real reason you asked me here?"

Elsie simply told them to wait a second while she went to a small pile of books on her bed and pulled one out, revealing a book of Gothic Fantasy artwork, she flipped through the pages to a portrait of a sexy, yet evil looking fairy and said, very quietly lest some ghost of her words might reach her parents ears.

"I was thinking about getting a tattoo and, well…" Elsie's nerve failed her.

Ethan Yeager and Josh Decker both formed shit-eating grins and Ethan answered, "Say no more Elsie Sloane, I've got just the guy who can do it on the sly, without parental permission, no questions asked, cash-only."

Elsie brightened until Ethan held up a hand and added, "But I must warn you, he's not the most _sanitary _of artists, so as soon as we leave, you will need to take a shower, and keep it as clean as humanly possible until it heals."

Elsie nodded at that, willing to accept the risks.

Josh then had a thought, "Wait, how'd you know that we had tattoos?"

Elsie just giggled and said, "Because I saw your shoulder one the last time we met, remember?"

Josh slapped his head and called himself six kinds of an idiot, but Ethan told him not to be too hard on himself.

"Besides, none of us were in our right minds at the time." He added with a snort and all three of them grinned at those good memories.

* * *

"Do you think they'll be ok?" Stephen asked Sandi as she pulled away from the parking lot in her sports car.

Sandi just sighed and pushed her pink hair back behind her face and said, "After a fight like that? Doubt it."

Stephen leaned back into the seat, forlorn over what had transpired at the Zon.

"Bob and his girls made for an interesting couple." Stephen said quietly to himself, but Sandi heard him and replied with.

"Yeah, but it was a complicated dynamic, a guy with two girlfriends at the same time who were all aware of it. I mean sure they were friends and Angel and Burnout loved Bob and he loved them, but…"

"It wasn't built to last." Stephen concluded for her.

"Yeah."

"You know now that I'm thinking about it," Stephen thought aloud once more, "I didn't see them at your school's dance, and during the last week or so they all did seem… Preoccupied."

Sandi just grunted, having already spotted the signs of trouble ahead but not having wanted to believe them herself.

"I hope that we can all still hang out together, I mean if it doesn't feel weird and stuff." Stephen said, not wanting the good times he had been having with the Lawndale kids to end so abruptly.

Sandi gave a sad smile and replied, "Don't worry Steve, you and Bob get along fine, and I'm not going to dump you just because my friends are having a breakup."

Stephen Pierson-Wells sighed with happiness and relief and said, "I didn't mean it like that Sandi."

Sandi's smile grew into something happier and she said, "Good, cus I like being with you Steve, you're the best thing that's happened to me since… My mother died."

Sandi was then forced to stop the car for a red light, and Steve took advantage by leaning over and kissing her cheek, having already been told the whole story by Sandi during one of their talks.

She had left some details out, but Stephen had pieced together the events of the 'Zon' from hints and the drunken confessions of Angel and Burnout, his girl had been through hell and back and come out the stronger for it.

"But is this serious, or just a fling?" he asked himself in his thought for the millionth time, not sure of the answer himself.

But fully committed to just going with the ride and seeing where it went, not even aware that Sandi's thoughts on the relationship were almost parallel.

"He'll probably dump me once he's, like, bored and stuff and go with those Fielding 'Topisienne' or whatever they're called." Sandi had concluded.

"But I'll just enjoy this while I can."

* * *

Tori heard the phones ring in the house, but since her dad was out working late, her mother was out with her 'accountant' for the rest of the night, and her brother's fast asleep, it was left to Tori Jericho to answer the damn phone.

"Hello." Tori answered curtly.

"Is that you little Tori?" a seductive voice said on the other end of the line.

"Who's this?" Tori asked, feeling the pull of memory at the voice, but not quite able to place it.

"It's your Aunt Dallas, Dallas Grimes."

"Aunt Dallas?!" Tori's eyes grew as wide as saucers, she hadn't heard from her father's estranged sister since she was five.

"Yeah," Dallas replied, "I was hoping my brother was around."

"Nope, he's pulling another all-nighter at the 'Firm'." Tori replied, using the families' old nickname for the family business.

Dallas just chucked, "Oh poor Larry, still the boring old workalcholic I see… Well tell him I called."

"Ok, but why _did _you call?" Tori couldn't resist asking.

Dallas just made a sound and she replied, "I left my husband, and something big is coming up down the pipeline, something that if I can pull it off will have me set for life."

"That's cool!" Tori answered despite not having any idea whatsoever what Aunt Dallas meant by any of it.

"Glad you think so little Tori," Dallas replied, "Just make sure your father gets my message, ok?"

"Sure, bye Aunt Dallas!"

"Bye Tori…"

_Click!_

* * *

"Ok, so while Jane sorts out the bail, want to play another round of going to the picnic?" Tom asked as the last of Jane slipped through the doors of the rundown Sherriff's station in the rundown town.

"Hmm… Nah, I think I've had enough sandwiches to last me until, oh forever." Daria replied without a hint of being anything but serious.

But it still made Tom smile and his sea green eyes dance, which made Daria feel warm, despite wearing only a plain blue t-shirt, her skirts, and combat boots, she had abandoned the coat in recent days and couldn't quite figure out why.

A silence filled the car, but not an unpleasant silence, for some reason it felt… right.

Tom glanced at Daria and wondered once more if he was missing a signal, or if he should be _bold _and make a move.

Daria in the meanwhile felt butterflies flutter inside her and contemplated crazy thoughts that she had honestly thought to never have with anyone, ever.

Tom decided to try for a small amount of boldness and broke the silence by saying, "I've enjoyed the time we've spent together Daria."

Daria glanced at him, Tom wasn't able to read her at all, and she said, "Even having to drive me and Jane so far out just to bail out her brother and his friends?"

"Hey any excuse to talk, right?"

They both laughed at that and then noticed that for some reason they had both inched closer together, blocked only by the thing in between the driver and passenger side seats.

Neither one made a move to go back.

Daria then felt herself blush and the heat inside her was near supernova levels, but she did something she hardly even did.

She put her heart on the line and risked being hurt in order to see, if this was a friendship, or if it could be something… more.

"What if we… I mean me, I mean… ugh!"

Tom just smiled as Daria tried to say whatever it was that she wanted to say until finally she just spat it out.

"What if we could be more than friends?"

Tom's smile never left his eyes as he thought, "YES!" and leaned in and before Daria fully realized it, he kissed her.

Her eyes opened in shock, but she didn't back off, but for some reason her hands snaked slowly around him, pulling him closer, her tongue began dancing with his, while she pulled him closer and closer and closer…

A loud thud broke the spell, yelling from a distance ensured it's death, and while Tom and Daria separated in a rushed panic, Jane, Trent, the rest of Mystik Spiral, and his girlfriend Monique left the Sherriff's Station.

Monique and Trent were having one of their legendary fights, Max was bragging about getting a toy sheriff's star, Jesse and Nick were talking guitar talk.

Only Jane had seen what Tom and Daria had been up too and her eyes were as large as saucers.

"Whoa! Holy shit they crossed the Rubicon! OH YEAH!" Jane thought aloud, yelling out the last so loud that it cut above even Trent and Monique's arguing.

The only explanation she gave was to point at Tom's car, where Daria and he were both clearly trying to pull themselves together and the windows were partly steamed up.

"Whoa is right!" Monique summed up, having paused her righteous anger at Trent to take in this alien sight.

"Whoa indeed." Jesse added, which was more of a thought than he normally had, impressing everyone else.

* * *

Jane leaned on Jesse as the Tank sped on its merry way, or as fast as it ever went, the ride already sucked, but it was obvious that Tom and Daria could use some privacy.

"Even if they do have to focus on the road, even just a little bit." Jane snarked to herself, wishing that at least Monique would banter with her, but she was saving her energy for Trent since the moment for yelling had gone past her for the moment.

But only for the moment.

* * *

"So why the evil gothic fairy?" Ethan asked his cousin while glancing at her in the back of Josh's car (actually his mother's second car that he had borrowed without permission).

Elsie shrugged and said, "I've thought about getting one on and off for a while but I never was able to work up the nerve. At least until I saw the ink you and Josh got, and I thought, what the hell I'll only live once."

"What if your parents find out?" Josh asked with a teasing grin from the front.

Elsie just snorted, "I'm getting it on my lower back, where they won't look and besides, you wouldn't dare nark now. Since it would be mutually assured destruction and all that."

Ethan chuckled at his cousin's cunning and replied, "Yeah, I wouldn't want to deal with your parents if they found out about how I've corrupted you."

Elsie snorted again, "Oh trust me I was already rotten, you just added the finish."

This caused Josh, Ethan, and Elsie to laugh even as the vehicle sped it's merry way towards Axl's shop, which did cause Elsie to think to ask the 'pain question' again.

"So how bad does it hurt?"

Ethan shrugged, "Depends on where you get it, the more skin and bones, the more it will hurt, but it usually only feels like getting a bad sunburn, but it's kinda addicting for some reason."

"I'm already thinking about the next ones." Ethan added, "Though I haven't settled on anything yet."

"You'll show me when you do, right?" Elsie asked anxiously, already in love with the art of tattooing, if vicariously.

"Anything for you cous." Ethan replied with another grin, just in time for Josh to say that they were near Dega Street.

"We'll park a few blocks away, parking in Dega Street itself is an invite for trouble." Ethan explained as he and Josh looked for a shady spot to park.

Elsie just nodded and said to herself, "Ok so I'll have to walk, no problem, just a quick walk, a few hours of burning, and a walk back home with no one the wiser."

"No problem."

* * *

Rex stormed out of the house, he could already hear his parents yelling at each other even while the front door slammed shut, hard.

"Fuckin' alcoholics!" Rex roared to himself, ignoring his own growing dependence upon booze to deal with the shit life was throwing at him.

Rex made a beeline for his truck and turned on the ignition and left, no destination in mind, just wanting to find a way to clear his head.

He flipped through radio stations, skipping ones playing Ms. Li's political ads, and found a rock n' roll station playing good music.

"_I used to know a girl/she had two pierced nipples and a black tattoo"_ the song issued from the speakers in Rex's truck

Rex began to sing along, "We'd drink that Mexican beer/ We'd live on Mexican food/Yeah I wish I could go back…"

"Yes back in time!"

Rex had no idea who was singing this tune; he had heard it before and knew the lyrics by heart but had never caught the name of the band.

But just being away from home, with a good tune on his lips, and the open road ahead made things more bearable.

If but for a little while.

* * *

"I still love you," Linda Mackenzie kept saying over and over to her son as he sobbed in her arms, "Your still my son."

"No matter what happens Mack, you're still my boy…"

* * *

Janet Barch had stumbled into her apartment a few minutes prior and the messages were playing on her machine, they were almost all from Timothy O'Neill, and they were increasing in their apologetic and pathetic tones.

"Hmm… Maybe I was too hard on him." Janet said to herself while kicking off her heels, "I'll call him tomorrow, and then I'll ask Wind and Tom out for another fun night together."

Janet then entertained thoughts of the delights she would show all three men, wondering how to get Timothy comfortable with exploring sex with other men under her direction.

She kept thinking these thoughts even as sleep took her while she listened to the messages on her machine, that's what comes about from lounging in a comfortable chair with what was probably 2/3rds of a bottle of tequila in your system.

* * *

Jodie Landon looked at the paperwork she would have to present Ms. Li on Monday; she was going to keep it in a blank folder in her backpack so her parents would notice it.

"This is so going to be worth it!" Jodie told herself once more, giddy with the thrill of rebellion against everything her parents wanted her to stand for.

She then felt the call of nature and quietly left her room, just in time to see her sister sneaking up the stairs, clearly trying to get back into the house from having snuck out.

Rachel Landon froze after she spotted her elder sister spotting her, waiting to be ratted out.

Instead Jodie just smiled and mouthed quietly, "I won't talk." And kept walking towards the bathroom.

Rachel's sigh of relief was truly comical, but Jodie kept herself to silent giggles, at least until she made it to the bathroom to pee.

"Keep on rebellin sis!" Jodie thought to herself, "You'll be happier for it than I was at your age."

Jodie had quite a bit to make up for, but she suspected that she was making good progress at catch up.

And it's better than nothing, right?

* * *

Tom Sloane held his shoes in one hand and the doorknob in the other as he moved as quietly as his socked feet would allow for, sneaking into a mansion was no mean feat, even if you lived there.

The entryway was dark, it had been later than he had anticipated getting back home, but once he had stopped off at the Morgendorffers he had found it a bit difficult to leave right away.

Since he and Daria couldn't resist another kiss, that turned into their first serious (uninterrupted) necking session.

"Home free!" Tom's inner voice cheered, thankful that no one suspected a _thing!_

A light flicked on.

"Oh shit!" Tom muttered to himself, and oh shit it was.

Angier Sloane was sitting in a folding chair facing the front door with a couple empty cans of soda at his feet, keeping a watchful vigil.

"Hello Tom." Angier said quietly and in a tone that his son was very familiar with.

"Hi Dad." Tom replied weakly, bracing himself for what was to come.

"Before I punish you, and trust me this is going to be epic in proportions I have one question for you young man, what in blazes were you doing in the first place?!"

Tom managed to relax a little and said very sheepishly, "Well… I had to drive some friends to Fremont to bail out some people from jail."

"What?!" Angier said several decibels louder than his normal voice.

"_And… I met a girl…"_

* * *

"So whats the scoop at Casa Lane?" Daria asked Jane during their early morning walk towards the torture center, aka High School.

Jane Lane grinned a very twisted grin and replied, "Well after Summer showed up for her runaway kids, she and Penny began arguing, then Penny's parrot destroyed Dad's prints by ripping half of them and using the rest for toilet paper."

"After that, Summer left in a huff with her brats, Dad cried and said he had to go back to take his pictures all over again, Penny sold some… stuff. And last I heard is heading to Belize, and Mom is, as far as I know in the basement making more nicknacks."

"Wait, aren't you forgetting someone?"

"Oh Wind? Well apparently after Katie went to file the divorce papers she discovered that _she _had forgotten to divorce her own so-called ex, so she was legally a bigamist and wound up being arrested, Wind went back to get his stuff and sell hers."

"But!" Jane added with a dramatic flourish, "He said that he'll be coming back to Lawndale, which means that unless he gets his own place."

"Ouch!" Daria replied, feeling her friend's pain at having to deal with someone that, if Jane's word could be trusted, was an even bigger emotional time bomb than Mr. O'Neill.

"Yeah… Trent's already thinking about going on tour again." Jane replied wearily, "So I'll need to save up for more bail money."

"There goes the Caribbean Cruise this Christmas." Daria deadpanned.

Jane just laughed, but then felt her joy die at the sight of Lawndale High, another day in Hell had just begun.

* * *

"Hey Ethan!" Jodie Landon called out to Ethan Yeager the instant she spotted him in the halls, for some reason Mack was with her.

His curiosity piqued, Ethan told Josh he'd be right back, leaving his boyfriend to go tell Ms. Barch why he was going to be a little late for Science Class.

"Whats goin on Jodie?" Ethan asked after he reached the formerly dating pair, no doubt the rumor mill was saying that they were back together.

"Look at this," Jodie said simply and showed Ethan some paperwork, his eyes started to glaze over until Jodie pointed to two things, the keywords 'Lawndale High Gay-Straight Alliance' and Ms. Li's official signature.

"How'd you…?" Ethan began to ask before Mack simply whispered, "Not safe for school." And his gaze fell on a nearby camera.

"I'm going to make some copies and send the originals with Daria to her mother, having a lawyer on our side will be a plus." Jodie said, explaining things without giving away any key details, wanting Ms. Li to be _very surprised _when the media hit her with this.

Ethan felt a smile form on his face and he looked at Mack and Jodie and said, "Such audacity, I think me and Daria are rubbing off on you."

Mack and Jodie just laughed at that and Jodie replied, "You know, I think your right about that Ethan, and it's not a bad thing at all."

"I hear that!" Mack added.

Jodie then said she had to get to class and headed off, while Mack took a moment to say, more quietly, "I talked to my Mom, and she's really, truly ok with it."

"I'm glad to hear it Mack." Ethan replied, not saying the G word since Mack hadn't done so first.

Mack gave a cryptic smile and replied, "I'm going to avoid making a big deal about it, but once the group is off the ground I won't deny it if anyone asks."

Ethan whistled and said, "You move fast bucko."

Mack just grinned at that and replied, "I decided that if I'm going to be honest with myself and really be me, I might as well go whole hog and get it all out there as fast as possible, in case I chicken out."

"Mack, chicken out? Never!" Ethan replied just before the bell sounded and Mack looked horror stricken, but Ethan just chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to Ms. Barch and with your permission I'll let her in on your new status, it will get you into her good books."

"God I hope so," Mack replied quietly, "That woman scares me."

"You're a wise man Mack," Ethan stated with a small grin, "But a woman like that is good to have on your side."

Mack just repeated saying "God I hope." so before following Ethan towards Science Class.

* * *

"And Mack," Ms. Barch called out just as the bell finished ringing at the end of class, "I'll need to see you for a moment before you head out."

Mack just sucked in a breath and steeled himself for whatever the teacher from hell had in store for him.

After everyone else had left the room, it was just Mack and Ms. Barch, he had walked up to her desk and had the rare sensation of feeling like a child.

"Mack," Janet Barch began quietly, "Ethan told me something interesting but I want to hear it from your lips first, I assume you know what I'm talking about."

Mack looked at Ms. Barch and said with quiet conviction, "Yeah, I'm gay."

Janet Barch then did something Mack had never expected in a million years, she gave a very mirthful smile and said with a laugh, "Took you long enough to figure it out!"

Then she laughed even harder at the look of pure shock that had seized the Football Captain like a hook in a fish's mouth.

"Oh come on now," Ms. Barch continued with joy, "It was obvious from day one that you had homosexual inclinations, why do you think I was so hard on you? You were wasting both your time and Jodie's with that relationship, and a girl like that can't afford to waste time, you do understand me, right?"

"Yes Ms. Barch." Mack replied very hurriedly, anxious to ensure that she understood that his and Jodie's relationship was over.

"We're just friends."

Janet Barch's smile grew and it was a pretty pleasant one too, "Good, now here's a note for your next class so feel free to take a few minutes to relax or do whatever."

"… Thanks!"

"No problem." Janet replied with warmth, a first for Mack and he left Science with a spring in his step.

"It's good to see a happy ending," Janet said to herself while turning back to her papers, "They're so rare these days."

She had to get to work fixing Mack's grades, he had earned some easy A's now that he was being honest with himself, and he wasn't being a drain on Jodie Landon.

* * *

Tori Jericho found the note sticking out of a small slit in her locker, it was written on very fine paper and in an elegant style and said simply this.

"_No more waiting, time to call Ms. Li to account."_

_Signed,_

_D_

Tori Jericho simply nodded her head and whispered, "Yes."

It was time to bring it all crashing down.

**THE END**

* * *

_Notes: Some lines taken from 'Lane Miserables' and 'Speedtrapped'. The song Rex is singing is Everclear's 'Heroin Girl'._


	7. Chapter 7: Chaos Theory

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 7 Chaos Theory**

"Ok, so that's the last of them." Tori said as she crawled back into the car and Daria started driving the instant her passenger side door was latched.

The plan that she and Daria had cooked up had been tweaked slightly, in that instead of sending the disks to just one media outlet, Daria and Tori Jericho had made multiple copies and sent them to the major regional media players, and the State's Justice Department through anonymous drops.

"The media will be faster to respond," Daria had explained while burning more copies, "However on the off-chance that we're both found out we can fall back on saying that we did send copies to law enforcement, even if they don't do anything without reporters prodding at them."

Tori had agreed with her at the time, and now she was even more certain that Daria was right.

But there was one little hitch that had shaken up their happy alliance, and had resulted in Tori sucking it up and letting Daria pick the radio stations for their little road trip to places where they could send packages without being directly attached to the package.

Tori Jericho had chosen to hold back two disks, the ones that related to the grade fixing at Lawndale High.

It had taken quite a bit of effort to get Daria to see things her way, the logic was simple, but, well…

"Daria is way too ethical for her own good." Tori had concluded, "I mean it's nice to have a moral compass but to be so… Impractical?!"

Tori's logic was this, everything not related to the byes merely affected Ms. Li and some of the faculty and administration of the school, only a handful of students would be affected, and that was iffy.

The grade fixing however would leave a black mark on virtually every single person that had ever played sports at Lawndale during Ms. Li's tenure, even Jocks who didn't use them, like Mack.

"And besides," Tori had told Daria at the time, cutting into Daria's angry tirade, "Your friend Jane took a bye during her stint in Track, remember? It's on the disks and she would be just as impacted by the scandal as any other Jock through guilt-by-association, even if she did quit Track as quickly as she did."

Daria had had a very difficult time arguing with that, then Tori had thrown in a sweetener, "Besides, they stopped giving out byes after Ms. Li began running for office, and with this kind of scandal attached to the school whoever does take over in the end couldn't risk giving time out again anytime soon."

"That is, if they pick someone just as corrupt as her to take over, and even among corrupt officials, Ms. Li is _dirty!"_

Ultimately however Tori had agreed to a compromise, if the stuff that leaked proved to be insufficient to get Ms. Li at least fired, then the grade fixing would be the next thing sent out.

"I just hope we don't have to go that route," Tori thought to herself while some alt-rock song played on the radio, "Because if people do find out that we are involved, we'll become the most hated people in Lawndale."

Tori shuddered at the thought of that, not merely unpopular but outright _hated_.

It was simply too dangerous a place to be in, people could get killed if they were hated, and Tori refused to take that sort of risk.

Unless she didn't have any other choice.

* * *

Angela Li glanced around her office at Laaaandallllle Hiiiiighhhhh and for the first time it seemed… small.

She felt, cramped, having just done her longest round of campaigning yet, going around District 3, shaking hands, kissing babies, getting campaign contributions, the entire process of becoming a Congresswoman was so much larger than being a Principal.

"Let's just sign this crap so I can get back out there and become somebody!" Li chortled to herself and signed several documents without bothering to look at them.

One of those was an authorization to paying a to-be-determined number of students a hundred dollars each to tutor their fellow 'athletic peers' in a special two week after-school program.

Coach Morris has suggested not putting a specific number on it since she wasn't sure how many brains that they could get, or how many they would need for each group of Jocks.

Gibson let her have her fun, then look at the list of 'must have brains' and called their parents, selling them on the idea that this could be used on college applications.

And then he mentioned a 'small fee for services rendered' for the tutors involved.

"That should do it." Gibson said after finishing the last phone call to the Morgendorffers, feeling relived that they would have a super brain like Daria on board.

* * *

The unofficial first meeting of Lawndale High's Gay-Straight Alliance was being held in the Yeager's backyard, Jodie had supplied the cash for refreshments since this wasn't an official meeting.

This was to test the waters and see who would come.

They had made fliers and promotional material and posted it around the school and the word had been spread via Tori that Lawndale's first gay rights group had been founded.

Everyone found it odd that she would suddenly be so supportive, but Ethan had noticed Daria wear a knowing look whenever the subject came up and suspected that Lady D had gained some sort of hold on the Gossip Queen of Lawndale County.

A surprising number of people had come and from a wide range of grades and places in the social hierarchy.

Ethan noted a few Seniors, some juniors, a surprising number of Sophomores but only a handful of Freshmen, and suspected that there was a maturity factor involved as well.

Some of the faces were expected, others big surprises, but they were all more or less on the same page.

Ethan noted those that he knew, Ted and Robert were here, as was Mack who was talking to a Junior that he didn't know, Josh was right next to him, there were a few girls from various grades that he didn't know, everyone that usually sat with him was there, minus Daria who said she had to take care of personal business.

Jane was there, looking a tad stand-offish with only Andrea for company.

Rex was also present, looking a bit nervous but never the less present, but he didn't look half as twitchy as the other person that no one had ever expected to see at an event like this.

Jeffy Grey, the red-headed member of the Three J's.

Jodie Landon called the meeting to order by simply standing on a tree stump and cupping her hands and calling for people's attention.

"Thank you all for coming," she said sweetly once the initial mingling was finished and everyone who wanted to had gotten some food and soda in their systems.

"Welcome to the first (unofficial) meeting of Lawndale High's Gay-Straight Alliance, a group dedicating to fostering understanding between our LGBT students and the Straight students of Lawndale High, in addition to addressing concerns regarding bullying and moral support, it is my hope that the Lawndale Chapter of GSA will ensure a healthy and happy educational environment for everyone."

Everyone more or less just raised an eyebrow at the formal speech that Jodie was giving, Jodie noticed this and then relaxed her pose and laughed a little at herself.

"Sorry for the big words, I was kinda reading the form speech, let me try this again, basically what I just said is true, I hope that this group can be a place where those who are Gay, Lesbian, Bi, or Transgendered can blow off steam with their fellow straight students, get to know each other, stop the pointless bullying, and just learn to all get along."

She got a more positive response when she translated the stump speech into humanspeak.

The cheers lasted for several minutes longer than Jodie was used to dealing with, and she seemed to grow several inches and Ethan admired her for it.

Jodie then opened the floor to let people speak their own minds, one at a time, if they wished, about why they were there and what they hoped to gain out of this.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments until Mack cleared his throat and simply said, "I hope that my time helping to make this GSA work will help me get a better understanding of my recently discovered identity."

Then when several people seemed confused Mack clarified it with a simple, "I'm gay."

Ethan couldn't resist a grin as Mack upended quite a few people's perceptions, his previous image as the perfect jock-boy had also come with a lot of heterosexual baggage that was now effectively gone.

After that, Ethan simply took Josh's hand into his own and said, "Everyone here knows our story, and I hope people can learn to see past our various sexual labels and get to know the real people behind them."

On and on it went, some people came forward as Gay or Lesbian, others stated that they were Heterosexuals who supported gay rights for one set of reasons or others, others simply didn't reveal their status, or made the choice not to speak of their reasons just yet.

Then they reached Rex Attor, who at this point was almost shaking with his nerves, but a couple mental tricks that he did prior to big football games to still his nerves seemed to help.

"Well everyone knows me, for the wrong reasons," Rex said quietly, then was forced to repeat himself more loudly since not everyone heard him.

"But I've learned a lot about myself in the last few months and I'm trying to change and fix the damage I've done. I hope that everyone can forgive me, I'm still not sure I can forgive myself."

He then sighed and then added, "But I'll keep trying dammit!"

Ethan gave him a vote of confidence by going, "Here here!" and holding up his soda like a toast and then drinking from it.

That certainly broke the ice for Rex with this crowd, most of whom had been avoiding him since his very unexpected arrival, at least no one other than Mack, Jodie, Josh, and Ethan had known he'd be coming.

Then after a pair of freshmen girls finished speaking, it was Jeffy's turn and he looked an even more nervous wreck than Rex.

"Uh… Well…" Jeffy then took a big gulp of soda before continuing, sweat began to pour down his face, "I've been… dealing with some stuff for a while… I mean the other J's have known and they've been there for me… But… well… I…"

"If your not ready to talk yet Jeffy it's ok man, take five if you need too." Mack said to him from nearby but Jeffy just waved him off.

"No man… If I don't say it now I might not ever…" Jeffy then seemed to almost swell, his face turned completely red before he managed to force the words out.

"I'm… Bi."

He then had to sit down since he started hyperventilating, Robert and Ted went over to keep an eye on him while Jodie steered the meeting back to other matters, such as setting up an internal structure and getting a leadership system established.

When the vote was said and done, Jodie found herself voted in as President of the Lawndale High GSA, Mack was picked as VP, she then chose a Junior that Ethan didn't recognize to serve as Treasurer and stated that at the first official meeting they would set up a secretary system to take down minutes based on who had the best hand writing.

* * *

Jeffy finished wiping off his face before handing the handkerchief back to Ted with a softly spoken thanks.

Robert Tavare gave Jeffy a supportive pat on the back that nearly knocked him off his folding chair, but he took it in stride.

"It's ok Robert," Jeffy replied after Robert began apologizing profusely, "I'm used to your superman strength out on the gridiron."

That caused all three boys to laugh a little, Robert was practically the Hulk when it came to muscle power.

Jeffy then finished his soda to wet his throat and then dived back into what he had just fessed up too.

"I know what everyone is thinking, that I'm gay and just saying that I'm Bi as a cover… But I kinda like girls more than guys but its like a 60/40 split."

Robert gave Jeffy a supportive smile this time and replied, "You're not the only one Jeffy, when I came out as Bi, I got that treatment, especially since I started dating my little guy here."

Ted beamed as Robert ruffled his hair, it was something that happened very frequently between them, Ted had taken to carrying a comb on him for when his hair needed to be less ruffled on a moment's notice.

The whole scene brought a small smile to Jeffy's face as he tentatively started asking Robert questions.

"Well, let me thing," Robert replied, "I started having fantasies about guys and girls at the same time, so I kinda always knew, I just didn't tell anyone. I was so afraid of how people would react that I hid that part of myself for years. At least until Ethan came to Lawndale and he was just out and didn't care what anyone said or did, no fear or nothing."

Jeffy replied, "Yeah, I noticed that too, he's a braver kid than any of us put together."

Even Ted nodded in agreement with that, having lived a lie as well until he met Robert who just brought it all out to the surface.

Robert then ventured a brave question and asked Jeffy when he figured it out.

At that Jeffy issued a nervous laugh and swore the two of them to secrecy and said very quietly, "Well last year when me and the other J's were out camping and drinking, I… I tried to kiss Jamie."

"…Woah." Was all either Robert or Ted could say.

"Yeah… It shocked the crap out of all us, me most of all." Jeffy replied, "I spent the rest of the night in denial, hoping that everyone would forget in the morning. But when I woke up the next day, Jamie and Joey were sitting next to me in the tent and then I didn't have a choice, we spent the morning talking about it."

Jeffy then sighed and continued, "I think that Jamie was pissed, I mean I would have been in his shoes, but Joey managed to calm him down after I passed out, so he was rational and… We all talked, and I confessed to having had a crush on him since Middle School."

Jeffy blushed at that, "Jamie didn't have one on me, neither did Joey, they are both straight as arrows, but they do love me, as a brother, and I love them back just as much."

"We are all we have…"

Jeffy didn't want to elaborate on that, and neither Robert nor Ted pressed him on that particular point.

But he did continue on the self-discovery vein, "It took me a few months to really accept that I had some attraction to other dudes, not quite as much as a girl mind you, but it is there, even if I haven't… you know."

"Acted on it?" Ted finished for him and Jeffy nodded, not sure if that was a good thing or not.

"I mean I've wanted too, but there's a limited selection, and the good ones are, well… taken."

Robert and Ted both grinned at that and told Jeffy not to worry, his time would come.

Then they laughed at the dirty pun that they had made, and thus all was right with the world.

* * *

Daria called Tom as soon as she got home and asked him if his punishment would be up by the weekend.

"Not sure," Tom replied while lounging on his bed, being only allowed to leave the house to go to school by his parents for an undetermined amount of time.

Then after Daria sighed Tom suggested a crazy idea.

"Maybe we could get it reduced if you agreed to come over for dinner sometime this week to meet the parents?"

Daria sucked in a deep breath and said she'd think about it, then spent the next three hours fretting about it, not coming to a conclusion until later that evening.

"Alright… I'll meet them, even if it is a little early, right?"

She had no real frame of reference for things like this, unless she talked to Quinn, and there was no reason to involve Queen Brat, at least not yet.

Then she heard her mother calling her name from downstairs and within two seconds to hate whatever was going to come out of her mother's mouth, and Helen Morgendoffer didn't disappoint.

* * *

Tori Jericho had come back to the very nice house in Crew Neck where the Jericho clan lived and discovered a very unexpected visitor had come to call.

She resembled an older version of Tori herself, a blond haired blue eyed beauty with perfect lips, hips, breasts, and wore low cut ragged jeans, a pink jersey top that was tied off to show a bare tight belly, and fashionable boots.

"Hello Little Tori," a very familiar and sexy voice issued forth from the woman.

"Aunt Dallas?!" Tori exclaimed at the woman, the voice had helped with recognition.

"The one and only Little Tori," Dallas replied with a beautiful smile while standing on the Jericho's front steps, "I must say that you've grown up into a beautiful girl, you're not so little anymore."

"Thanks!" Tori replied, proud that someone had noticed, her parents certainly hadn't, they still insisted in treating her like a damn baby!

"I was hoping that my brother would be home, but alas he's at work like the boring prude I knew he'd grow up to be. Father and Mother must have been proud."

Tori wasn't sure how to respond to that, thankfully Dallas didn't expect an answer.

"Well I did meet your mother, and she suggested that I vacate for the moment, so I'll be staying at a hotel while I'm in Lawndale."

"Uh… Why are you in Lawndale?" Tori managed to ask.

Dallas just smiled and replied, "It's complicated, but I'll be around for a week or two, that's all you need to know Little Tori."

Dallas then slipped her a card with the hotel's name and number on it and said, "Don't be a stranger." Before departing, everything about her screamed femme fatale.

Tori pocketed the card, now determined to solve the latest mystery to literal land in her lap, wondering what thrills were in store now.

* * *

Elsie Sloane had her back facing a floor length mirror in her room, her head twisted as far as she could go to look at what Axl had created.

"It's dark, evil, and beautiful, just what I hoped for." Elsie thought to herself about the tattoo she had gotten, the evil gothic fairy, located on what she called her lower back but everyone else would see as a 'tramp stamp'.

"And no one need ever know," Elsie added to her thoughts, "Unless I want them to know."

She had never felt so alive, excepting that time she had smoke pot with Ethan, which was something else she wanted to do again.

Especially since it didn't involve a tattoo needle, a plus in any situation.

* * *

After the end of the first meeting of Lawndale's GSA, Mack had quietly gone home to do one of the hardest things he had done in his life.

He had asked his mother to come home from work early, just in case things didn't go exactly as planned.

His father, Alfred Mackenzie wasn't sure what to expect when he saw his wife home hours earlier than normal and sitting with Mack at the kitchen table with a funeral dirge in his eyes.

"What's wrong?!" Alfred asked out of concern, afraid that one of their close relatives had just died.

"Dad…" Mack began before taking a drink to calm his nerves, "I have something to tell you."

Alfred felt his stomach turn into a giant knot, afraid that Mack had knocked up some cheerleader…

"I'm gay." Mack said simply and waited to see what would come next.

* * *

Ms. Li slept in her bed, secure and safe, thinking that all was right with the world.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

* * *

Mack rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, not wanting to look up at his surroundings again and ask the same question to himself.

"How the fuck did I wind up in jail?!"

Well to be fair he was merely in a holding cell, nursing a monster headache and some impressive bruises, however his father was sporting worse, not that Mack could see him since Alfred Mackenzie was in the cell right next to his.

Mack at this point was trying not to think about his father, the horrible things that his Dad had said, or the fight, which was something of a blur in Mack's mind, he honestly couldn't remember much, except for the only rational thought that had emerged admits the chaos.

The shock of discovering that if a person becomes angry enough they really _can _see red.

Then Mack was shocked out of his pointless mental ponderings when a police officer tapped his cell bars with his baton and yelled, "Wake up! Your Mom posted bail."

The officer then stepped out of view after unlocking the doors and Mack looked up to see his mother, Linda Mackenzie stepping forward with the last person he had expected to see.

Helen Morgendorffer.

"Uh… Hi." Mack said weakly, then winced when he tried to wave.

"Don't strain yourself," Linda said with concern dripping off of every syllable, "We'll take you to the hospital, just in case you broke something."

"Uh that's ok Mom," Mack replied, not quite able to look back up, "I'll just sleep this off."

Helen Morgendorffer however tut tutted and added, "No, you're going to the hospital, your still legally a minor Mack and anything your father did can be construed as child abuse."

"Wha?" was all Mack could come up with.

Helen noted how much that Mack was dazed from the chaos that had gripped the Mackenzie family but was forced to explain the situation as best she could.

"Michael," she said using his full legal name, "Your mother backed up your side of the story when the police asked their questions, it's why she was allowed to bail you out so quickly and so cheaply. She isn't going to cover your father's bail, and since his relatives are either living out of state or in worse circumstances than he is…"

"He isn't getting out until he's tried." Linda concluded simply and then sighed with relief that this would be a problem for another day.

"And that's going to be awhile, the way the courts move." Helen added, relived that the slow pace of justice was working in their favor.

"Now you are going to the hospital young man," Helen said in a voice that would brook no arguments, "We need to make sure you're physically ok."

Even in his state, Mack took notice that Mrs. Morgendorffer was able to make a distinction between physical ailments and mental ones.

He nodded but said nothing, the adrenaline rush from the fight long gone, his body was weary and yearning for a place where he could lay his head.

Linda did what she could for her son, she went over and helped him to stand up and with her arms wrapped around his shoulders, she guided his steps out of the jail cell and on down the halls out of Lawndale's County Jail and on towards wherever this suddenly twisted road would take them.

"At least we have a good lawyer on our side." Linda thought gratefully, not even caring about how much this was probably going to cost her.

Money wasn't everything, and besides she would take the cash from the joint account, make her husband foot at least part of the bill since he was responsible for this fix.

"The bastard!" Linda thought to herself, already having decided to choose Mack over Alfred, blood was thicker than a wedding band.

Besides, husbands can be replaced, not sons.

* * *

Angela Li heard the phone ringing and glanced blurry eyed at her alarm clock and sighed, this was a downside of running for office, very little sleep.

"Yes…" She said into the phone once she found it, then snapped wide awake once she processed the words coming from the other end.

"NOOOOOO!"

* * *

"Well Daria once you come around to the official meeting on Thursday, you'll find out." Ethan said in reply to Daria's inquires about the unofficial meeting of the GSA in his backyard.

"A rule that is in force is not to gossip about what is talked about in the meetings." He added.

Josh then threw in, "It's to make sure that everyone feels safe to talk without worrying about things spreading around, especially at Lawndale with bitches like Tori and Brittany unable to stop talking to save their damn lives."

Ethan, Jane, and Josh laughed at that, but Daria oddly enough didn't, but only Ethan noticed this and gave her a questioning look.

She responded with a look of her own which read, "I'll explain later."

Ethan shrugged his shoulders and steered the conversation towards the other big topic, the afterschool tutoring.

"Well idiot me was the one that picked up the damn phone and I kinda agreed to it once those dollar signs popped up in my eyes." Ethan explained after Jane and Josh both seemed very shocked once he told them that he had agreed to it.

Daria simply said, "My Mom thinks it'll look good on my college applications, and she hinted threats about music camp, I'm now telling myself that the money will be worth it in the end."

"Keep telling yourself that Amiga," Jane replied with the air of an Asian Wiseman from a Kung Fu movie, "Despite it cutting into your time with Tom, the money will be enough to compensate for those 'necking' sessions I have little doubt you've been engaging in."

Daria's blush was enough to give the game away, bringing much mirth to the lives of Jane, Ethan, and Josh, the latter two who then gave Daria whoops of encouragement.

Then they noticed a growing amount of traffic as they reached the main drag towards Lawndale High, something very curious that was explained when they all rounded the last corner and caught sight of Lawndale High.

Seemingly besieged by a small army of reporters.

Daria felt a full blown smile form on her face, unseen by her friends.

* * *

It didn't take long to get the gist of what was going on, when they got close enough to hear what the TV reporters were saying into the cameras.

"And now at this sleepy suburban High School, the entire district has been rocked by allegations from an anonymous source which has revealed a web of corruption, money laundering, excessive purchases of security equipment, invasive invasions of student and parental privacy, wire taps, bribes, cover ups, persecutions of pregnant teen girls, and even hints of connections to organized crime and grade fixing."

The last caused Daria's eyebrow to go up, apparently Tori hadn't been able to exorcise _all _the evidence of the Byes from her disks.

"Pity." Daria thought to herself without a single ounce of it, the Byes would serve as a cherry on top of the mountain of madness.

Anything that got Ms. Li fired and thrown into jail for the rest of eternity was a good thing.

"Woah!" was the only thing that any of the other three could think to say.

* * *

James Q. Pollard, the lawyer for the Lawndale District of Schools was in the offices of Angela Li, and between him and her they had gone through an entire carton of cigarettes and were working on the second.

"How did this happen?!" Angela breathed once more, smoke rings flowing out of her mouth and nostrils as she said it, making her look like some twisted demonic woman.

James didn't bother to answer but instead looked to his notes, having already dealt with a flood of calls from reporters, politicians, the secretary of the Superintendent of the District, since the actual Superintendent was currently sucking down a bottle of rum to calm his nerves and was getting so calm that he would be unable to function for at least a day or two.

"We've got to get a handle on this!" Li yelled to no one in particular, "I've talked to my campaign staff and they're in spin mode, now I've got to figure out who could have leaked this and GET THEM!"

James did the equivalent of "I hear nothings, NOTHINGS!" and kept looking at his notes, hoping that she wouldn't notice that half of them were pure gibberish and the other half weren't really helping him at all.

* * *

"Thanks for driving me to school Aunt Dallas," Tori said inside her aunt's restored Firebird.

"No problem Little Tori," Dallas replied kindly before asking if the chaos around the school was par of the course.

"Nah," Tori replied nonchalantly, "This just happens whenever secrets come to the surface, that's all."

Dallas just smiled at that and said nothing, now having confirmation that her little niece had something to do with all this.

However she just told Tori to have a good day at school and couldn't help but think of how similar they were, at least when she compared her own teenage self to Tori.

"I wonder if I could introduce her to the life, when she's a bit older." Dallas contemplated while Tori got out of the car with her bags and headed on to another day at Lawndale.

Once Tori was gone, Dallas then opened the glove box and looked at the notes she had written down from her intell, Ms. Barch's car shouldn't be too far away from here.

"Vengeance will be yours Janet," Dallas thought to herself, "You just won't be able to enjoy it."

* * *

"Mack!" Ethan breathed when he first caught sight of Mack Mackenzie as he entered Ms. Barch's science class.

Mack took a seat next to Ethan and Josh and greeted them in turn, his face and what was visible of his arms covered in bruises.

"What happened Mack?" Josh asked, sucking in a horrified breath.

"I came out to my Dad, this is what happened." Mack replied simply and flatly, not giving a crap who heard.

"Oh my god… I'm so sorry for you man." Josh breathed without thinking about how there's nothing worse to give out than pity.

Mack just grunted and opened his Science book just as Ms. Barch finished roll call and began the day's lesson.

"Mack," Ethan said very quietly, "When you want to talk, just come on over, or we can go to your place, whichever works."

Mack was silent for a long moment before saying, "Thanks."

"No prob." Ethan replied while giving Mack a pat on the back and then apologized after he winced when Ethan hit a tender spot.

"Sorry man!"

"It's ok, just sore is all." Mack replied, wishing that his insides didn't hurt half as much as he did physically.

* * *

After the end of class, Rex Attor got one look at Mack and without even thinking about it just went over and hugged him.

In front of everyone in the hall.

"Mack bro, who did this?" Rex asked after letting him go, ready to ditch school and beat the shit out of whoever did this.

"My Dad." Mack replied just as flatly as he did with Ethan.

"Why?" Rex began to ask before it dawned on him, "Oh Mack…"

This time the hug was mutual between them both, and it certainly set the gossip chain on fire, but in that moment, neither one of them cared.

It was just good to know that someone out there gave a crap, and simple gestures could convey it far better than words.

* * *

James Q. Pollard honestly couldn't come up with anything to say as his client, Angela Li's paranoia reached levels of madness that he had never seen before.

And he had dealt with people who believed that the CIA was putting bugs in their food.

"No it couldn't have been Tori, she would be bragging about it." Li muttered to herself while her fingers traced names on seemingly endless lists of students, both past and present, whom were on the official "Seditious Elements" List which was normally framed and updated regularly on the door facing her office

"The Lanes… Well Penny was in the country… But this stuff is too recent to be her… Or could her sister Jane have…"

James lit up another smoke and wondered how much longer it would take for Li to wind down enough to be brought back to reality.

"Daria… No she wouldn't have had the opportunity since she's never had access to any of the files."

James quickly finished his cigarette and went to light another one when the office door burst open, causing him to drop the freshly lit smoke on Ms. Li's desk, setting the mass of papers ablaze.

"NO!" she screamed and tried desperately to bat out the flames with a random folder, but only managed to set that on fire as well.

The smoke detectors went off, which in turn set off the school's fire alarm, but since most of the students and teachers assumed it was another one of Ms. Li's drills; they took their sweet time in getting out.

Thankfully, the sprinkler systems kicked in a few seconds later, turning a slow grudging march for the doors into a mad dash to get out of the water.

No one was seriously injured in the stampede, but for some reason Ms. Barch kept finding herself tripped by MEN and landing on her ass as she tried to reach the doors.

But meanwhile in Ms. Li's now drowned office, the true horror was unleashed as the two Federal Agents who had found themselves dragged to this suburb, announced that she was to come with them for questioning.

"NO!" Angela Li screamed in now psychotic outrage and did what she thought was perfectly rational, falling back on her self-defense and martial arts training.

While the agents had quite a few pounds of muscle on Li, she had reservoirs of rage, fear, psychosis, and self-preservation to draw on.

"HIIIYAAAH!" She roared and within a minute had both agents on the floor in agony and bolted out as fast as she could in a pair of flats on now very slick waxed and very wet floors of Laaaaaandalllllle Hiiiiighhhhh.

"AHHHHH!" Ms. Li screamed as she slipped and fell on her ass and found herself sliding down the hallways like a kid on a slip-in-slide.

Due to the rush of water which was being supplied by the sprinklers, she couldn't find any traction or something to grab onto, since everyone had gotten out in a hurry after the sprinklers went off.

"AHHHHH NOOOO!" Li screamed over and over as she went faster and faster and had only seconds to kiss her rump goodbye as she slammed into the main doors of her beloved High School with full force, but due to her security systems and their damn malfunctions, the doors had automatically locked.

So instead of finding herself ejected out of the building like a drunk being hurled out of a bar by bouncers, she busted her lip, nose, lost three teeth, and cracked a rib on the metal doors and lost consciousness.

* * *

Evan Larson, Lawndale High's biggest track star and a very brief love interest for Jane Lane during her slightly longer stint on Track was the person closest to the doors and heard the thud first.

"What was that?!" He said aloud and began backing away from the main entrance as fast as he could considering the crowd.

The sounds of sirens in the background signaled the arrival of Lawndale's Fire and Police forces, the teachers did what they could to clear a space, but the arriving vehicles did a much better one.

The media, who had turned out in droves for a political scandal, had the collective thrill of having a whopper of a story thrown into their laps, and they ate it up!

* * *

"I guess tutoring is out for the day." Ethan whispered to Josh, who just laughed and replied that it would give _them _more time to study.

"Or you know… Do whatever."

Ethan was in the mood for whatever.

* * *

Classes were canceled for the remainder of the day on the basis that the building was simply too waterlogged, however anyone with half a brain could figure out that was just an official excuse.

Even Kevin figured it out once he saw a knocked out Ms. Li being taken out of the building handcuffed to a stretcher.

"Hey, is Ms. Li being arrested or something?!" He asked, and then Brittany had to spend a few minutes explaining it as best she could, which wasn't that good but at least she did try.

Lawndale High's Vice Principal, the elderly, hardly ever seen at the building, Mr. Umber, was forced to actually show up to the school and take charge of the situation.

The arraignments that Ms. Li made to get her hands on Vice Principals who wanted to coast their final years to retirement without making waves, or calling her out on her corruption was now biting the school in the ass.

Thus the not caring Mr. Umber was forced to do actual _work _in getting things organized to get the students away from Lawndale High for at least the rest of the day while he sorted out the mess with the help of the Lawyer, and the now arriving Superintendent Cartwright who took one look at the 64 year old Vice Principal and nearly fired him on the spot.

"Nah," Cartwright thought to himself, suppressing that particular instinct, "Keep him in place and use him as a puppet for now, I'll need a fall guy soon enough."

In the meanwhile he'll need to find Umber's replacement, fast, and deal with Angela's mess, his phones had been blowing up with calls from everyone from reporters, local and regional politicians, law enforcement, the works.

His solution was, once the students were gone, to get the key players to the nearest bar and hammer out a viable solution to this fix.

Before someone above Cartwright made the call for him, dammit!

* * *

Linda Mackenzie positively beamed at the three friends who had come over to see her son and told them to have fun, but added a warning, "No funny business, I am in the house and all…"

"We'll be good Mrs. Mackenzie." Rex promised with a kind grin.

"We're good kids." Josh added with a very exaggerated sweetness, which caused Ethan to elbow him and the two of them to fall to the floor, play wrestling and laughing at the same time.

Linda just warned them not to break anything and walked away, Mack in the meanwhile couldn't resist a hearty laugh and said, "Am I gonna have to go in and break it up?"

Rex laughed with him and replied, "Nah man, don't strain yourself, let the lovebirds have their fun."

That caused Ethan and Josh to stop and stare at Rex with twin faces of surprise before they remembered that he was improving and not the idiot bully they had been used to dealing with.

"Though he has a long way to go." Ethan's inner voice snarked, but Ethan Yeager curb-stomped on that thought with full force.

"Well the lovebirds want you to pull out your textbooks Rex," Ethan replied while rising with as much diginity as he could manage, "Mack and me are supposed to be helping you, or that's the story we gave his Mom anyways."

Rex just chuckled at that and replied, "Sure man, whatever." And pulled out his history book and felt his happiness drain away, this was his worst subject.

"Ok, let's start with today's assignment," Ethan began while glancing at Rex's attempts at homework, his very poor attempts rather and suppressed a sigh.

"At least he's trying now Ethan." He reminded himself in his thoughts but aloud continued with, "DeMartino was talking about the War of 1812, so let's just start there."

Mack and Ethan then alternated helping Rex, and to a lesser extent Josh with their history homework before moving on to other subjects.

Rex wasn't sure he really understood all of it, but he was putting in real effort this go around and it was showing.

* * *

Meanwhile, Daria and Tom had snuck off to the park to practice the fine art of making out, Jane worked on a new painting while Mystik Spiral practiced in the basement, her Mom worked on pottery near the drum kit, pleased that her children were so artistic.

Wind was meeting Tom Griffin and Janet Barch at a bar in his best shirt and feeling like a million bucks when he caught sight of the latest love of his life.

Jodie Landon was dressing up to go out on a night on the town for the first time in years, granted she was going by herself but she felt more confident.

Besides she wasn't ready for a new relationship, she just wanted to have some fun.

Sandi was meeting with Stephen for a night at Zon, while Bob spent his night at home, still feeling miserable about his breakups.

Joey and Stacy had to do some sneaking around, but they found a place to have sex, in Joey's Dad's borrowed Jeep in an empty parking lot, which just happened to be at Lawndale High.

Robert and Ted were also doing a study session at Ted's Aunt's house, with just a bit more effort Ted was confident that his man would get off of academic probation, and without having used a single bye to do it.

As for Jeffy…

* * *

Jeffy felt very out of sorts, which was to be expected since he was at the Zon, and it wasn't normally his scene.

But he hadn't felt like chasing Quinn around, he hadn't really felt like it since he had talked at the GSA meeting, and Jamie had caught a fever from the whole sprinkler thing so he was laid out at home.

Quinn in the meanwhile was gnashing her teeth while trying to find a last minute emergency date to show off at Governor's Park.

But back at the Zon, Jeffy had spotted Sandi and her Fielding boyfriend, but hadn't gone over to bother them.

Jeffy went over the bar and on a lark ordered a beer and barely managed to hid his surprise when they served it too him without question.

He heard a woman's laugh next to him and when he turned he saw a raven haired, dark beauty looking back at him.

She spoke with her ruby red lips, "Hey, you new here?"

"Uh, yeah." Jeffy responded, floored by the vision in front of him.

"Uh… What's your name?" Jeffy managed to ask, stunned by his own boldness.

The dark beauty just laughed and replied, "I'm Monique, your one of the guys on the Lions right?"

"Yeah, I'm Jeffy Grey." Jeffy answered before nursing on his cheap beer, not caring that it sucked since it was alcohol.

"What brings you here to the Zon Jeffy?" Monique asked sweetly.

"Not sure, nothing else to do I guess." Was Jeffy's answer.

"I can fix that." Monique thought to herself, feeling like crap after she and Trent had tried to get back together only to break up again, a hook up with a cute guy was just what she needed.

"And he could use some company too." Monique thought as she began to work her magic.

* * *

Tori Jericho finished her math homework and wondered if they would even be going back to Lawndale the next day, she noticed one of her files out on her desk and sighed, having forgotten to put it away.

She glanced at it and realized it was a file on one of the teachers, Ms. Barch in fact and recalled why she had had it out in the first place.

"I just don't know why Aunt Dallas was so interested in her… Maybe they went to high school together." Tori pondered while she put the file away.

It took her several hours and a random brain fart to realize that Dallas and Janet's ages didn't mesh for a High School meeting.

* * *

"These are good flapjacks Mrs. Mackenzie." Rex said in between mouthfuls of the best pancakes he had ever had.

"Thanks Rex," Linda Mackenzie replied, her smooth handsome face a mask of thinly veiled amusement and satisfaction, "It's good to see people appreciate a good home cooked meal."

Her other two houseguests, Ethan and Josh both made appreciative sounds, but couldn't form words since they were in the process of consuming said pancakes with gusto.

Linda gazed at the scene before her, she had had trepidations at letting Mack invite the three of them over, but he had insisted on having some company, and from hints she had seen when keeping an eye on them it was obvious that his friend Rex was in worse circumstances than he was.

Though other hints revealed that the other two were more 'romantically' involved and had sacrificed their evening in order to keep her son from thinking about what was going on at the moment.

"But they didn't do anything under this roof," Linda thought to herself, thankful for the paper thin walls, "I'm ok with my son's desires, but there will be no hanky panky in MY house."

Noting the time, Linda turned on the small radio near her seat at the table, wanting to hear the news before she went to work and the kids went to school.

It only took a few minutes to learn that school would be out of equation for that day at least.

"So I guess they still need to sort out the mess." Ethan said with an ironic smile, there was more than just water soaked garbage to clean out of Lawndale High.

"So I wonder who the next tyrant… I mean Principal will be." Josh replied, with his own cool grin.

"Well whoever it is can't be worse than Ms. Li, right?" Mack asked the last with a hint of fear that he might have jinxed everything.

"Right?!"

There was an awkward pause before Ethan and Josh said they would have to at least make an appearance at their respective parental unit's homes, and Rex was smart enough to take a hint and asked Mack if they could meet at Cluster Burger for lunch.

"Sure." Mack said on instinct, not even thinking about it at all.

"Cool." Rex said with a pleased grin and added, "Does this count as a date or something?"

"… Let's just stick with friends for now."

"Ok." Rex said quietly before following Ethan and Josh out, since he was the one who would be driving them home.

Linda took one look at Mack's dreamy face as he watched Rex stride out of the Mackenzie home and just shook her head.

"Young love." She thought to herself with a mental sigh, wishing that her son had picked someone more… suited for his first gay romance.

* * *

Jeffy Grey woke up to the sounds of a radio alarm going off and had to fight himself to full awareness in order to turn the damn thing off.

By the time his fingers found purchase on the snooze button, Monique was standing in the door frame of her small bedroom in her small flat, wearing nothing but a too-small black bathrobe and a smile.

"Sorry about that Jeffy, I forgot to turn it off." Monique said apologetically before walking over to the bed and shutting off the alarm altogether.

She then sat down on the bed and kissed Jeffy, and then pulled back just long enough to say, "Don't worry about school, they canceled it for the day. And since you said your Dad doesn't care what you're up too…"

Jeffy Grey just grinned lustfully and went back in for a fuller, more proper kiss, the kind that turns into something much more fun than necking.

* * *

Daria just sighed, she had had fun playing her parents for suckers, but she had apparently slipped last night and now they knew that something was up.

She knew this because her mother had barely waited for her to sit down for breakfast before asking point blank, "Daria, who was that boy you left the house with in that rusted out car last night?"

"My boyfriend." She said flatly.

"Dar-ia I'm not in the mood for jokes," Helen replied dismissively, "Now out with it."

"He is my boyfriend." Daria repeated, just as flatly as before.

There was a long moment of silence that seemed to stretch into forever, Helen, Jake, and even the chattering magpie Quinn were staring at Daria as though she had just grown a second head.

"…Uh Mom," Quinn began weakly, "I don't think she's kidding."

"Oh Dar-ia!" Helen began ecstatically happy, Daria tried to cut her off by asking for everyone not to make a big deal of it.

But it was a vain request.

Quinn gasped and asked, "How did you land a boyfriend in that outfit?! I mean you did lose the coat but still!"

Helen began making elaborate plans for dinner so she could meet Daria's new and first beau.

It was left to oblivious Jake Morgendorffer to ask the obvious question.

"Who is he?"

"Tom Sloane." Daria replied flatly for a third time.

"… Sloane… As in those Sloanes?" Jake asked tentatively.

"Yes." Daria answered again in an emotionless monotone.

"That's great kiddo! So when can we have him over for dinner?"

"Not tonight," Daria answered honestly and with great reluctance, "I'm meeting his family for dinner at their place this evening."

Jake then glanced at his wife, who had somehow wound up talking to Eric, she was alternating between talking about a case and her daughter dating a Sloane and sighed before turning to his newspaper.

Quinn in the meanwhile gave Daria a respectful bow of her head as if saying, "Well played."

Daria did the only thing she could at that point, she got up and left for Jane's since hell, school was canceled.

* * *

While the media ran with the massive chunk of red meat that had been thrown at them from the day before, corruption, theft, mass hoarding of excess security equipment; Ms. Li's attempts at ordering a Satellite Transmission Jammer was the symbol of madness being used currently.

And a wide variety of other nefarious, semi-legal, outright illegal, and other assorted things that Principal Psycho had been up too during her nine year tenure.

Superintendent Cartwright in the meanwhile was chain smoking cigarettes and doing his college best in shifting the blame on others, much of which would go to Ms. Li of course.

But something like this would require more than just one sacrifice, after formally firing Angela Li (and sending out the press release in advance), he called Mr. Umber to inform him that his services would no longer be required.

"And due to the circumstances, don't expect to get that retirement package." Cartwright had added with glee and listened for a moment at Umber's hisses of outrage and threats of legal action before hanging up.

In the meanwhile his newly hired team of lawyers had gone through as much as they could on short notice and pointed out that of the charges and accusations leveled at the school, the one that had the least evidence (due to Ms. Li's team of paper shredding and lack of a leak), he could cauterize the damage on that front by firing a coach.

Cartwright flipped a coin, then flipped it two more times, and thus, Coach Morris found herself without a job and taking the brunt of the blame for attempts at grade fixing, thus making himself look good on clean up duty, if nothing else.

Then he realized that without Umber in place, _there wasn't an acting principal at Lawndale High!_

Since he didn't want the job himself, he tapped his old buddy from college, Coach Jed Gibson to man the fort until he could dig up a permanent replacement.

He reported all of this to his superiors, in carefully chosen words that made it look like he had taken on a herculean task with gusto.

The part of it being herculean was true, but that was on part of the Lawyers who had done the bulk of the work on very short notice and with only a small mountain of caffeine to fortify them.

But that was what nameless Lawyers were for, to do the work and make the people that work for them look good.

And thus, satisfied that his band-aide would hold for at least a few days, Cartwright rested and finished his smoke.

Then opened another carton up, he really needed to relax.

* * *

Tori Jericho had been forced to do some digging, but she had gotten her hands on a photo album that her Dad didn't like for anyone to look at, it only took moments to find the right pictures for Tori to confirm something.

"Wow, she really does look like me at that age." Tori noted of her mysterious and vampy Aunt Dallas, it was kinda nice to know that she would age very well, and it would take a mountain of plastic surgery like it already had for poor Brooke Tanner.

Tori snickered at the memory of Brooke's screwed up nose job and then went for the phone, she needed to confirm her date with Evan Larson for later that night, he was her official safety date, and (though she wouldn't admit it at the moment) something of a regular thing.

"I'm popular," Tori reminded herself once more about her solemn duties, "I can't have a regular steady boyfriend… But… No I can't afford it… But… I CAN'T AFFORD IT!"

She called him anyway and set up both the date, and some time afterward so they could…

Tori had a very strange thought, she tried to suppress it but it refused to be denied in that particular moment.

"I'm getting sick of having to do all of this hoop jumping to be popular." Tori's inner voice forced her to admit to herself.

She then suppressed it, but the feeling remained for quite some time.

Even after she spent three hours planning her outfit for the night, both outer and underwear, Tori had the need to impress on both fronts.

"Besides," Tori thought to herself while looking at yet another lacy black bra, "Evan likes it when I do the whole 'naughty nightie' look."

Then again, so would any other red-blooded heterosexual male with a pulse somewhere above dead.

* * *

"Is this Dallas?"

"Yes, it is."

"A friend of a friend wanted me to call to let you know that Muddy's been spotted in Oakwood, asking questions."

"Ah… Good, thanks for the tip."

"No prob."

_Click!_

* * *

"Hey look, a stray pepperoni." Josh complained while holding up the offending piece of meat on his sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza.

Ethan did his solemn duty and took the slightly different form of ham and just added it to his pepperoni pizza without complaint.

"He's such a good boyfriend," Jane joked, "You should keep a close eye on him Josh or else some lady of the evening will snatch him up from underneath you."

Josh and Ethan just snickered at that, the very idea that a _chick _could pull that one off was simply ridiculous!

While the four of them ate their pizza at the local Pizza Prince, they were updated on the madness gripping the school by simply listening to the gossip, which (when distilled) went something like this.

Ms. Li was either in jail, the hospital, a mental asylum, or some combination of the three, personally Ethan and the others were hoping that all three would wind up being true, but that would require a half-full glass view of the world, and none of them were capable of that.

The new Acting-Principal was the football and boy's gym coach, Arnold Gibson, his colleague Coach Morris had been sacked since (apparently) the actual surviving evidence of grade fixing was with the teams she was in charge of.

"And Gibson was perfectly innocent and did nothing wrong, ever." Ethan commented sarcastically, bringing much joy to his fellow snarkers.

The Superintendent had also dumped the Vice Principal, which had caused many people to ask the question, "Lawndale had a _Vice _Principal?!"

While the school was being cleaned up, the team of lawyers and accountants were going through the school's budget with a fine-toothed comb, and even Kevin expected them to find that Ms. Li's budgets were pure fiction, bestseller quality in fact.

"Have they hired in any new teachers yet?" Ethan asked one of the tables next to theirs, not caring that he was making it blatantly obvious that he and his friends were listening in.

The other table didn't care, they _wanted _to be overheard.

"No not yet," was the answer, "Probably because they haven't shit-canned all the teachers they want to get rid of yet."

Oddly enough this made actual logical sense, Ethan sensed a disturbance in the force but chose not to investigate.

They enjoyed their different small pizzas and the epic clusterfuck that their school had descended into for over half-an-hour, but the pizza ran out and the topic became stale for the moment.

So Daria found herself forced to drop a small bombshell.

"So Ethan," she began to ask hesitantly, "What are the Sloane's like exactly?"

"Huh, what?" was Ethan's reply, since he had been a little distracted trying to sort out his cash to pay his share of the bill.

"Tom's parents, what are they like?"

"They're ok I guess, I mean they're not a snobby as the extended clan, why do you ask?"

"I'm going to meet them for dinner tonight at their place." Daria answered calmly, which masked the twisted bundle of nerves that had found their way into her stomach.

"Oh," Ethan replied while Jane and Josh gave Daria encouraging smiles, "Well that's cool, well give Uncle and Aunt Sloane my best."

"It was either than, or my parents were going to invite Tom over," Daria added flatly, "I'd rather deal with his dysfunctional family than drive him off with mine, at least for the moment."

Everyone enjoyed a small laugh at that and turned back to settling the bill, except for Jane who was the only one who noticed that Daria was more apprehensive about this than she was letting on.

* * *

Dallas Grimes thanked the bellhop and then hung up the phone, and also thanked her idiot soon-to-be ex-husband for not bothering to take her name off of their joint credit card, and for using said credit card to rent out a cheap motel room in Oakwood.

"He knows I'm here," Dallas said to herself while idly playing with what looked like a microchip, "But he doesn't know that I know he's here."

"Now to get this plan into motion."

Dallas then flipped open the yellow pages until she found the number and dialed it, it only took a couple rings for her pawn to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hi Janet." Dallas replied, using some acting to add trepidation to her tone.

"Do I know…. YOU?!"

"Yeah it's me." Dallas began before she was cut off by Janet Barch's most explosive epic rant that she had ever given since she had been at her lowest low after Muddy had upped and left her and came across that Wimmin Power Rally that had put everything in a new perspective.

Dallas was forced to wait nearly thirty minutes before Janet paused for breath before she could get a word in edge wise.

"I'm divorcing Muddy."

"… What?!"

"I left Muddy and I'm getting a divorce." Dallas repeated simply, not letting the horrific ringing in her ears bother her, at least in her voice.

"Oh…"

"And I came to tell my family the good news, but… The bastard's followed me."

"What?!" This time Barch's voice was even screechier than normal, but now quite a yell.

"I saw him mulling around town and a friend let me know that he's staying at a motel just outside of Oakwood."

"That bastard had the gall to come crawling back after leaving me after TWENTY TWO YEARS OF LEGAL SLAVERY!" Janet began to rant again, her anger now focusing on her ex-husband.

Dallas didn't feel like another rant, wishing to keep her hearing for at least a few more years, "Janet!" She snapped, getting Barch's attention.

"…Yes?"

"Do you… Want to know which motel?" Dallas asked very hesitantly, as though she wasn't sure that Barch would want to know. Which was the key to getting the harridan to very much want to know.

"… Sure, but if you think that I'll go crawling back to _him after LEAVING ME FOR YOU…!"_

"I don't expect you too," Dallas said quickly, cutting off another rant, "But…"

"Just give me the motel address and… just give it to me dammit!"

Dallas Grimes gave her the motel address, and managed to let it 'slip' out that she had found out the room number through his use of a joint credit card.

"Thanks, I guess." Janet Barch said very reluctantly on the other end of the line.

"… Ok then, and Janet?"

"Yes?"

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Barch hung up a second later without answering Dallas at all.

But the blond bombshell just smiled, and silently thanked her niece Tori for all that useful information on Muddy's first wife.

"Instead of going to all that trouble framing the bitch for murder, just send her in to actually kill the bastard for me." Dallas had decided after reading Tori's files on her teacher, and both then and now couldn't help but admire the tyke for her talent in intelligence gathering, even if it was currently geared towards pointless gossip.

"In time she'll learn to put those skills to better uses." Dallas had decided once her own plan was in place, one day she would show Tori the ropes and get her out of suburbia and into a more interesting life.

"Poor, poor Muddy." Dallas whispered to herself while looking at her meal ticket in the palm of her hands, "You have no idea what's coming over for a visit."

"No idea at all…"

* * *

Once Rex Attor and Mack Mackenzie had finished their burgers and fries, and Rex had cleaned up for them both, he sat back down at the table with his 'friend' and they began to talk.

"So Mack…" Rex began very cautiously, correctly guessing that he was entering treacherous waters, "You are completely sure that you're ok with being… friends, right?"

Mack took one last gulp of his Mega Sized soda and replied, "Yeah Rex, I like you and in spite of… recent events, I want to give this a chance, but we skipped _way _too many steps and I want to go slow."

"I mean this is all new to me Rex and… I want this to work."

The look of fear was replaced with cautious optimism on Rex's face and he replied with no small amount of joy, "Yeah Mack, I have to admit that I've done things with some other people that I'm not proud of, but you're the first one that I've had… feelings for."

"I want to make this, whatever it is, work, whatever it takes man."

The smile that beamed from Mack was worth billions to Rex, but before they could add anything further to the conversation, one of their fellow Lion's, the guy with giant shaggy jet black hair came over from a table on the other end of the building and looked at them funny for a moment before he began to ask.

"Hey I heard some rumors and I was wondering… Are you two, like, gay?"

Rex and Mack both just looked at each other for a moment, not sure how to answer, Mack gave Rex a questioning look before Rex just shrugged his shoulders, looked at his fellow footballer, Saul, and said very quietly and with only a slight shake in his voice.

"I can't speak for Mack, but me? Yeah Saul, I prefer other dudes, why you ask?"

"Uh… No reason, just curious…" Saul trailed off before glancing at Mack who simply answered, "Yes."

Then Saul asked if they were, like, dating.

"Not sure yet man." Rex answered quietly, "We're trying to sort that out."

"Oh… That's cool." Saul answered, "Well listen guys, as long as you don't, you know, troll around the locker room or anything then I'm ok with it."

"Thanks, I guess." Was Mack's reply to that.

"Cool." Saul replied with more enthusiasm, "Well I won't spread it around, but people _are _asking questions and stuff."

"Good to know," Mack replied for the two of them, "I don't think either one of us will make a big deal about it, but if we're asked I doubt either one of us will deny it."

Rex gave that a very firm nod, feeling relief that everything was out on the table, and with only a small amount of fear.

Saul nodded in acknowledgement and said, "Great, see you guys at school, whenever that will be." And then went back to his burgers.

There was a moment of quiet between Rex and Mack before the latter filled the void with, "That went surprising well."

Rex just grinned like a loon and replied, "I think the way was paved for us by others, but man it's still some scary shit."

"Yeah," Mack added, "It is, but at least we aren't doing it alone."

"No," Rex said with warmth, "We're never alone."

* * *

Bob Sorenson finished his call to his brother David, glad that he had been able to make time for his little bro while away at Crestmore.

"David's right," Bob said to himself with a sigh, "No more moping, what's done is done, I've gotta put myself out there and have fun again."

It still didn't help, his heart still ached like a bitch, Angel and Burnout had been his baby girls, his everything, and then it all came crashing down so far that it still made his head spin.

Bob kept repeating to himself that once he started going back out, hanging out with friends, partying at Zon, eating copious amounts of junk food, and the like that everything would work itself out.

Somehow.

* * *

Acting-Principal Jed Gibson sat in a very hush, hush, meeting with those members of Lawndale High's faculty that he got along with best.

Which was Mr. DeMartino, Ms. Bennett, and Ms. Defoe, and the four of them were at Gibson's pad drinking, munching on snacks, and helping him pick out a new Girl's Gym Coach, a new Vice Principal, and (so they hoped) talk him into getting rid of either Barch or O'Neill, or both if they were lucky.

"Kessler?!" Defoe complained, "That woman is an even bigger bitch than Morris!"

"Well if we do get rid of Barch, this Martina lady had tolerable credentials…" said Ms. Bennett sweetly.

"Hey," DeMartino breathed, "HOw did DARia's NAME get THROwn into the POol?"

"…"

"NEVerMInd!"

"Actually that's not Daria," Bennett replied helpfully while rereading the list, "But this particular Ms. Morgendorffer has the qualifications to serve as either a replacement English Teacher or Vice Principal…"

The meeting went on like this for another hour before Gibson, sick of seeing other people drinking his beer just picked names off the list based on those that weren't crossed out and said, "Ok I think I'm getting the swing of things!"

DeMartino began to wonder how much a gun and some bullets would cost, he wasn't sure if he wanted to kill Gibson or himself.

"MAYbe BOth!" the angry teacher admitted to himself, but out of earshot lest his new boss overheard him and MIGHT understand what he was talking about.

Probably not but best not to take chances this early in the game.

* * *

After lunch at Pizza Prince, Ethan and Josh evacuated themselves back to the Yeager residence where, sans parents, they cracked open Ethan's stash of weed, snacks, pop, and put on Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon'.

By the time the song 'Money' came on, they were both riding the wave of good feelings to the max, by the time it ended, Josh turned a very lazy gaze at his boyfriend and asked, "So… Any good tat ideas, man?"

Ethan finished off a hit from his homemade bong and blew several smoke rings just to show that he could before replying, "Yeah… my pads are… somewhere…"

He then got up and shuffled around a bit until his body made the connection to his brain and went over to his small drawing desk and after a bit of fumbling he managed to pick up his sketchpad and brought it back over.

After few minutes of looking at Ethan's latest work, Josh's addled brain found a pretty impressive image, a skeleton playing a guitar.

"Hey… I like this guy…" Josh slurred, "Can I get this for, you know… a tat?"

"Yeah man," Ethan slurred back in pleasure, "You'd look hot with, you know… more of my stuff on you."

Josh just responded with a laugh and replied, "That's dirty man…"

Ethan made the mental connection and laughed at himself as well, "Yeah… wanna, you know, get dirtier?"

While they would both realize much, much later that this was easily the worst pickup line that either one of them had ever heard, the pot helped smooth things along.

The hard part was getting the clothes off in their depraved state, but once they managed it, things went their natural course.

* * *

Time had a way of slipping away when you were having fun, but in the aftermath, it comes back to bite you in the ass.

The sounds of the front door opening cut through post-sex bliss for the pair, and they realized that they were both naked, stinking of drugs, food, sex, and other unspeakable things, and the door to Ethan's bedroom was wide open.

"I'll fix this." Ethan mumbled before taking a risk in getting out of the very pleasurable tangle of flesh with his man and stumbled towards the door and closed it.

The problem was solved.

But when he turned around he noticed that Josh had come back around and was now groggily reaching for what he thought was his (actually Ethan's) underwear.

Ethan just sat back and watched his man slip into his boxer's before putting on his beau's own unmentionables and just waited a minute for it to click…

"Huh?!" Josh muttered when he noticed that his black boxers were red briefs for some reason.

Then he looked up and saw Ethan in, gasp, _his _boxers.

Time froze, then they both began to laugh so hard that tears formed in both their eyes.

* * *

Josh finished pulling his shirt over his head, and felt the unusual tightness of briefs around his privates, and thus had finished getting dressed.

Ethan felt his slippery memory of the events of several hours prior come back to him and he asked, "Were you serious about getting one of my drawings as a tattoo again?"

It took a minute for Josh to realize what his man was talking about, but it came back to him and he shook his head and replied, "Yeah, why man?"

"You know," Ethan continued, "If we can catch a ride to Dega St. we can just hit Axl's, we still have a few hours until dark."

"A two-for-one?" Josh asked and Ethan nodded, then Josh asked what Ethan planned to get but only got a shrug.

"I'll pick something on the way."

Josh felt a smile form on his face at his boyfriend's strange ways, "It's why I love him so." Was Josh's thought on the matter.

Ethan then went to make a few phone calls and after a string of no's, he found a yes in Bob Sorenson and gave a whoop of triumph before rushing back to tell Josh to pull himself together.

"We've got a date with a tattoo artist with questionable hygiene but undeniable skill." Ethan sang while grinning from ear to ear.

"Ethan," Josh sighed, "You know I love you, right?" Ethan nodded and Josh continued, "But believe me when I say that you shouldn't sing, ever."

Ethan just replied, "True, but I do it because I can. Muhahahahaha!"

Josh began to respond but was cut off by the sound of a car horn, Bob had gotten there damn quick!

"Time to hit the big DS." Ethan said before grabbing his sketchpads and some cash from his emergency stash, if they were going to do this it had to be _now._

* * *

Jeffy Grey had discovered paradise, and it consisted of Monique's small apartment on Dega Street, Joe's Diner for lunch, the Harpies band practice where he was officially titled 'the Flyboy' and was hit on Monique's bandmates, but only half-seriously so Monique laughed.

Then it was back to her flat since the honeymoon wasn't over yet.

But in the aftermath of one of their epic, passionate, sexual trysts, Jeffy had gone to the kitchen for some water and noticed something he hadn't been paying much attention to since he had come here, for understandable reasons of course.

It was a medium sized flag, hanging from a poll, it had three horizontal bars going from pink, purple, and blue in that order top to bottom.

"Hey Monique," Jeffy called to his new girlfriend, "What's this flag for, are you like foreign?"

Monique left her bedroom completely naked and then glanced at what Jeffy was looking and went, "Oh that's just my Bi Pride flag."

"I didn't know that we had a flag." Jeffy said without thinking, and then realized what he said and went, "Oh crap." And then clapped a hand to his mouth.

It felt like absolutely everything was teetering on the edge of an abyss, then Jeffy heard the last thing he had been expecting.

Monique just shrugged and replied, "Oh, it's cool Jeffy, I'm Bi too."

Jeffy felt his hand fall away from his face and he sighed with sweet relief, "I don't normally talk about it… At least until recently I mean."

He then almost started stuttering a defense, desperate to keep Monique from dumping him, but she just smiled and said, "You can talk to me about it."

She then strode over to her new boyfriend, her glistening naked body pressed up against his body, naked except for a jockstrap around his privates.

"…_Thank you."_ Jeffy breathed before kissing his girl again, his need for water quite forgotten when there was a tall drink of water right in front of him.

Then he gave Monique a big surprise by picking her up and carrying her back into the tiny bedroom for another round, and neither one of them heard the phone ring.

* * *

Trent Lane hung his phone in disgust, Monique wasn't picking up, he sighed and began working on new lyrics for 'Ice Box Woman'.

"_You're the angel in black/you sure have a knack/for making me wait to get you in the sack/are we together?/or are we broke up?/oh!/my poor balls/you gave them freezer burn!"_

* * *

Jamie White sighed as he watched Quinn go off with her friends, they had caught a ride with some other guy who had a better car than him.

"She could at least get my name right." Jamie fumed to himself, he had been doing that a lot recently, he couldn't remember when it started.

But he had noticed thinking bad things about Quinn whenever he saw Joey and Stacy together, how she treated him with respect and he treated her with it right back.

"When they're together, it's like they are all that matter in the world to each other, with Quinn it's like, I'm her servant." Jamie thought to himself again before kicking a rock with his foot in the parking lot in a local strip of stores.

He headed back to his (apparently) not-good-enough car and then thought something he had never allowed himself to contemplate before.

"I don't think I like Quinn anymore."

Jamie White's world was rocked to the core.

"Don't like QUINN?!" Jamie said to himself in sheer terror, "I could I not like…"

He trailed off, his brain began to hurt, he had a lot to think about, and not much processing power to do it at the moment.

He needed to talk to someone, but Jeffy was MIA and Joey was with Stacy, his friends on the football team were idiots, and…

"Wait!" Jamie exclaimed in a sudden brainstorm, "I can talk to Mack! He's smart, but not like a loser brain or anything, he'll know what I should do."

With that happy thought in mind, Jamie got into his car and began his search for Mack.

* * *

Muddy Grimes grunted as he fiddled with the damn card key for his room at the non-descript motel he was staying at in the crap town near the crap suburb where that backstabbing thieving BITCH was staying at.

"No doubt milking her rich brother and sister and living it up while I sit in squalor and she has the damn meal ticket!" Muddy thought to himself in fury once more, but he drew comfort from the knowledge that he was going to surprise his wife in the worst way.

Then after having some fun for the road, he was going to kill her, slowly, and then he was going to take the sample of the X-5 Virus, sell it to the highest bidder and be on easy street for the rest of his life.

"About fucking time!" Muddy growled as the key finally worked and the door opened, he stumbled in the darkened room momentarily and found the light switch.

The instant the light came on, Muddy felt pure excruciating agony in the side of his stomach.

"Arrrgggh!" Muddy began to roar as he flipped himself and was cut off in mid-scream by several more rounds that were lodged in his chest.

Sitting calmly in a chair facing the room's light switch was a woman that, even in his most extreme pain seemed almost… familiar.

"ROTTEN…DIRTBAG….LYING…CHEATING….BASTARD!" Janet Barch crowed in pure venom as she kept pumping bullets from her unregister semi-automatic gun with an equally illegal silencer into Muddy's chest just as she had learned on the shooting range.

"Head and crotch shots look cool, but go for the area of biggest mass, you're more likely to hit the target." She had had drilled into her head.

And this is one target she _had_ to hit!

When Muddy tried to scream again, Janet simply took a risk and managed to put a slug in his throat, killing off his voice, everything seemed to slow down as the bullets kept flying from the gun until when she pulled the trigger again nothing came out.

"Dammit!" Janet snapped before tossing the gun on the floor, she then took in the scene, Muddy was now slumped by the wall, blood now caking where he had slid and was seeping into the carpet.

"You never could keep a freshly cleaned carpet, clean you worthless prick!" Janet said, doing her best to keep from screaming like she _really_ wanted too.

Janet Barch then stood up and opened up her purse to take out a very sharp pocket knife and calmly strode over to the figure on the floor, she noted with distaste that he was still breathing, but not for long.

"Hmm… I'd love to slice off… things, Muddy." Janet said very quietly and with dark menace, "But I can't leave any more evidence."

She sighed with regret that she wouldn't be able to keep a memento of this event, but then again, if everything went according to her ad hoc plan, no one would figure out that she was involved.

Janet then dug out Muddy's clothes and set them on top of his bed, glanced at the figure on the floor, not caring if he was alive or not and said, "Time to burn you, you, you…!"

She couldn't find a word foul enough, she needed new words.

Instead she simply snorted and lit up one of Muddy's smokes and tossed it onto the bedding.

"The clothes should slow the burn." Janet noted before rushing to pick up the gun and stuffed it into her purse. The she strode out of the small room, avoiding the blood soaked areas of the carpeting as best she could, she pulled the door shut, thankful for the gloves she was wearing.

A couple quick, nonchalant glances revealed no one in sight, so she just walked away and towards her car as though she had every right to be there.

She fumbled with her own keys a bit and got into the vehicle and glanced into her rear-view mirror and noticed that the flickers of flames were already making light and shadows dance in Muddy's room.

"Gotta go now!" Janet's mind roared at her as she got her car started and began driving away, first at a normal clip, then paranoia gripped her and after she drove a few miles out and away, a small laugh burst out of her, just a small "Ha."

Then another Ha, then another, until burst after burst of hysterical laugher welled out of her like an exploding volcano.

She barely managed to pull over and parallel park in front of some store and just let it all come out.

A strange explosion of emotion, tears, laughs, fears, joy, and everything in between.

"I… FUCKING… DID… IT!" Janet roared inside her mind, over and over again.

She had finally gotten that bastard, and got him good.

And no one would suspect a thing once the fire had it's way with the evidence, well the bullets would be a dead giveaway, but Janet would be completely off the hook.

She was as free as a bird.

* * *

Paul MacDuff watched the vehicle leave the motel as he finished his call to the police and hung up with a gruff thanks, his voice clearly masked to prevent his anonymous tip from being less than anonymous.

"Whoever you are lady, Dallas' has got your number." Paul said to himself as he turned on the ignition to his own car and left, in a different direction.

He had only been paid to keep an eye on the Barch woman, and if and when she went a certain motel and left, he was to leave the cops a tip that she had left and to throw in something 'suspicious' into the mix.

"And with that fire she started, suspicious is in the mix, that's for damn sure." Paul had been thinking as he wove truth and lies together for the police to hear.

As he drove, he called his old contact Dallas Grimes and told her the job was done, and let her know about the little fire going on as well.

"Hm.. Interesting." Dallas replied in her sexy little voice, "Well we'll see if Barch is as good at covering up her messes as she _thinks _she is."

They both laughed and Dallas told him to meet her in Lawndale at the food court of the local mall, "I'm making sure that security cameras and lots of people see me in Lawndale tonight." Dallas added with a laugh.

"I'll see you there, and then." Paul added before giving her a goodbye and hanging up.

One more quick trip to Lawndale, and then with cash in hand, he'd get back to Baltimore, and out of suburbia as soon as possible.

* * *

It had taken several hours, but Helen Morgendorffer had been able to hammer out an interesting and _very _acceptable agreement.

"No no, thank you." She had said as her good bye before hanging up, hoping that this was the last call of the evening.

Besides her boss, Eric, who had become more and more dependent upon her over the past year.

Helen just sighed at that, wondering what that man would ever do without her while thinking, "He's worse than a child, at least Daria and Quinn learned to tell the different between their elbows and their… nevermind."

Things were about to get a lot more interesting in the Morgendorffer Household.

"I just hope that… sigh." Was all Helen could come up with, she was just too exhausted to even think…

The phone rang.

"Eric." She said knowingly, not even bothering to look at the caller id.

"Hello?" she began and in two seconds was sucked into Eric's latest existential crisis, again.

* * *

"Axl's outdone himself." Bob said with a whistle s he swung back to Axl's shop with a couple bags from a nearby leather store in hand.

What Bob the Punk was admiring was the latest inkwork done by Axl on the hides of Josh Decker and Ethan Yeager.

Josh had taken the image Ethan had drawn of a half-skeleton playing a guitar surrounded by flames on his left calf.

Ethan on the other hand had chosen, after some advisement from Bob, to begin a big piece of a (soon-to-be) green Chinese dragon on his upper back.

He had been told it would take two or three sessions to complete, but for a piece that complicated and large, Ethan had kinda expected it.

"Oh yeah!" Josh cheered, glad that his had only taken an hour, Ethan's had consumed three easy.

Ethan just grinned and asked Bob what he bought.

"Oh just a couple new vests, some shirts to modify, and some other stuff." Bob replied while showing them the contents of his bags by simply opening them up a little and shifting them in the light.

"Just let me put this in the car, then we can do whatever." Bob said as the three of them began the walk to where they had parked Bob's beat up 92 cherry red Dodge.

"Zon." Ethan and Josh said at the same time, then they look at each other and laughed, it was the best place in town to party for those who were into good times and didn't give a crap about the whole popularity thing.

The popular had places like Trendee's to go and look good and be boring and junk.

* * *

The fire at the End's View Motel had spread quickly, doing significant damage to the rundown motel complex, most of the units had, at minimum suffered some form of smoke damage.

For others, there was the damage brought by the fire, a third of the rooms had been completely destroyed.

The owner was sobbing inconsolably on a curb wearing a blanket and drinking coffee, provided by the fire department, a small consolation for the absolute ruin that his pride and joy had been reduced too.

There had only been four deaths confirmed so far, an elderly couple that couldn't get out in time, a woman who had died in bed (drugs were suspected in that one), and a middle-aged man who's death was already suspected to have nothing to do with the fire, per se.

Since he had been found slumped against a wall that was still visibly riddled with bullet holes, along with his body, which despite the charring, had clearly been shot.

This was obvious to the firefighters that found him once the fire was contained and largely put out, since his room had been in the center of the blaze.

Reasons for why the fire had occurred were quickly being narrowed, one plus one was equaling two.

Then the police showed up, poo poohed the 'amateur' detectives, and wound up coming to the same conclusion, but that was later.

Once they achieved that much, the real work of investigating could begin.

* * *

Daria Morgendorffer took a long hard look at the mirror, the look she had slowly adopted since meeting Tom looked more fetching than her old one, but was still far enough removed from the styles of the vapid and shallow for her to be comfortable with it.

Daria was wearing a nice black shirt, black dress pants, her usual Doc Martins, a small necklace she hadn't worn since Highland, and a small amount of mascara and clear lipstick.

She wasn't sure if she should sigh or not, but settled for a slight slump of her shoulders as an offering to her former rigid high standards, and then tried to think of things to calm her nerves.

What Daria wound up doing was going downstairs and turning on Sick Sad World, and waited for the familiar sounds of a dying timebomb of a car to arrive.

In the background her mother was on the phone with someone, Daria's brain dimly registered that she wasn't talking to Eric, then she promptly forgot this when she heard the sound of Tom's Pinto rolling on down.

Daria made a beeline for the door before her mother could do something motherly, like try to meet Tom, ever.

Tom had been stepping out of his car when Daria stepped outside and headed over to the curb as fast as she could without breaking out into a full-blown run.

"Rearing to go?" Tom asked in a very cool manner.

"Rearing to spare you an interrogation by the best Junior Associate at my mother's firm." Daria answered, and in truth she was sparing him a round of torture for at least the moment.

"Works for me then," Tom answered as he opened the door for his gal, "Because I'd have to introduce your Mom to my families small army of suits and one lawyer, no matter how good, can be eaten alive if you throw enough at them."

"Personal experience?"

"No, just watched from the audience, with a bag of popcorn and an extra-large soda."

By the time Helen had gotten away from her call and began walking towards the door, Tom was already finished fighting with his death machine and pulling away.

"Damn!" Helen muttered to herself while stomping her foot on the cement before her cellphone rang again.

Dealing with Cartwright was a draining experience.

* * *

Jamie hadn't been able to find Mack, he did find out through the gossip chain that he was hanging around Rex for some reason, but Jamie was so wrapped up in his own problems that he largely ignored all the insinuations attached to those rumors.

Nothing so concentrates the mind like teenage angst.

But after making a few calls, Jamie did locate one of the other J's, Joey, who then took him to the Good Time Chinese Restaurant, and did the male version of gossiping and dishing on the latest news.

Which for Jamie was talking about his recent crisis of faith involving Quinn.

After a ten minute harangue on the subject, which now bored Joey to tears, Jamie concluded with, "I don't even _like, _Quinn anymore. But I don't know where to go from here."

Joey cracked open his fortune cookie for wisdom and actually found something that made sense, so he did something that shocked the crap out of Jamie.

He read it aloud.

"_To be free of the past, you must simply go forward."_

Jamie's eyes almost bulged out of his head like DeMartino's (and ensuring that he'd have a splitting headache later), he stammered out, "Dude, you, you, _read it man!"_

Joey just beamed like a guy that won a million bucks, "Yeah, I did. That program at the library has really helped me."

Jamie temporarily forgot about his own problems and reached over the table and hugged Joey fiercely and kept telling him how happy and proud he was for him.

Joey did his best to thank him, but had trouble talking since Jamie was kinda crushing him with his surprisingly strong bear hug.

Eventually Jamie did let him go, and after getting his breath back, Joey Black noticed that his friend was looking less dejected, more animated, and hopefully now on the path of getting out of Quinn's claws.

"Hey," Joey realized to himself while finishing off an eggroll, "With Jamie out of the picture, Jeffy off doing his own thing, and me with Stacy, Quinn lost all three of us!"

Joey laughed to himself and thought, "Who would have ever thought of that?"

* * *

Another bad band was playing on stage, but the crowd at the Zon was sufficiently intoxicated enough to not notice that and just danced to the badly shredded guitar solos.

Bob was at the bar finishing a smoke while Ethan and Josh were sneaking off to the bathroom to smoke one of Ethan's joints.

Bob would have joined them, but he had gotten the vibe that it was a 'couple's thing' and decided that nicotine was the better part of valor, or something like that.

The blue haired punk then asked the bartender for another beer, since hey, one bad habit called for another, right?

The beer was cheap, like everything else at the Zon, but it was actually the better for it.

"It makes it more real than the prefab crap that other fake places deal in." Bob concluded as he chugged the cheap booze as fast as he could.

It didn't take long to finish his beer and slam it on the wood, a signal for another at the Zon.

Then as Bob began his second brew, he heard a very familiar woman's voice.

Bob cocked his head and caught sight of Monique, the lead singer of the Harpies, sitting at the bar and chatting with some dude.

He began to turn away until something in his mind tickled at his memory, and the dude's face and the face of a kid at school connected.

Bob snapped back at the scene and thought, "Jeffy?!"

Sure enough, the kid chatting up Monique was Jeffy Grey, one of the players on the Lions, except in lieu of his usual preppy attire, Jeffy was wearing a black T-shirt promoting the Harpies in neon green lettering, he had traded his khaki pants for shredded dark dirty jeans, only the athletic running shoes were a clue that this kid had jock roots.

"Whoa!" was all Bob could come up with, even more so when Jeffy brazenly ordered vodka shots and had them lined up and, what do you know, he did the entire line without missing a beat.

Bob simply nodded in respectful acknowledgment, even if Jeffy or Monique didn't notice, the kid was clearly trying his best to impress.

"But I think she's already sold." Bob thought to himself in amazement, and a touch of envy that a kid even younger than he was could land a twenty something babe like Monique.

Then Bob noticed something that killed his mood completely, a few feet away a guy with a bald head and a green shirt was looking at Jeffy and Monique with shock and horror while talking into a cellphone and shaking his head.

Bob had been at the Zon enough to know the regulars, both customers and people on stage, and Max was the drummer of Mystik Spiral, Bob had seen him on stage enough already.

"Oh crap, crap, crap, crap!" Bob thought to himself, now fairly sure that the jealous ex-boyfriend, Trent Lane, would be on his way with some sort of car with hell on wheels.

Bob steeled himself, hoping that being a referee would help, or baring that got ready to kick some ass.

Even if the ass in question didn't deserve it, at least that's what Bob kept telling himself as he got ready to defend some turf and honor at the sametime.

"Just speak politely," Bob advised himself, "But carry a big stick."

* * *

Dallas flicked a strand of her blond hair out of face while licking the last drops of ranch dressing off of her fingers, the sub sandwich she had ordered earlier was now safe and sound in her stomach.

"The Submart here is good." Dallas thought to herself, rather impressed with the food court in Lawndale's local mall.

In terms of speedy service that is.

She sighed in satisfaction and glanced down at her bags from the various 'trendy' stores in the mall and suppressed a sniff.

"Most of this I'll just wind up hawking at a thrift store." Dallas thought to herself, not even liking the junk she had bought.

However she had the need to be seen about town, and in places with lots of security cameras, so she went to the logical places, like clothing stores.

Which did give her a brainstorm, she and her niece Tori were of a similar dress size, so why not just give her all this stuff as a departing gift from her loving Aunt?

"Alright then," Dallas thought to herself while getting up with bags in hand, "I'll stuff the bags in the car, find a bar, pick up a guy for the night, and make sure that I'm seen in Lawndale having fun and no way connected to whatever is happening in Oakwood."

Everything was going according to plan.

* * *

"E man, your weed is the shit!" Josh drawled after taking a quick hit of Ethan's latest homegrown batch.

His boyfriend just grinned with pride and replied, "Yes it is, now you wanna wash it down with some cheap booze?"

Josh just nodded and his boyfriend helped him back on his feet and they strode out of the bathroom stall, and decided to freak out the other occupants of the restroom with a quick sloppy kiss before striding out, letting their imaginations do the work for them.

Once out on the main floor of the Zon, Ethan continued his role as the (semi) sober dude and lead Josh towards the bar, and noticed Bob had acquired a companion that Ethan vaguely recognized as Max from Trent's band.

Once Ethan had Josh situated on a barstool, and wondered if his new strain was a little too strong, he greeted Bob and Max in turn and asked what was up.

"That's what's up." Max said while pointing a thumb over at a couple drinking at the bar.

"Oh so I guess Trent and Monique are broken up again." Ethan thought aloud as he watched Monique get very friendly with her latest squeeze.

"Yeah man," Max replied, "But normally they get back together right about now, so why is she with that High Schooler?"

"High Schooler?" Ethan asked aloud before giving the guy a second look and sure enough, the dark-red headed kid looked to be barely sixteen.

"It's Jeffy." Bob said flatly while working on his third beer.

"What?!" Ethan exclaimed, recognition only now clicking since he had never seen Jeffy in anything other than preppy clothing, much less hanging out in places like the Zon.

Bob just laughed and said, "Yup, and I have to admit that I'm impressed with Jeffy being able to snag a gal like Monique. I've always wanted to hook up with a Mrs. Robinson and guess who beats me to the punch? Some dumb as a rock jock!"

Not even Max could resist a laugh at that.

But then the drummer sighed and added, "Yeah but I did something stupid, I thought that the Jeff kid was, you know, hitting on Monique, so I… I called Trent and told him."

"Oh. God." Was all Ethan to say to that.

"Yeah, I fucked up, royal."

Bob then replied, "If he shows up, I'll try to talk him down before shit goes down."

Ethan sighed and replied flatly, "You don't know Trent very well do you Bob?"

Bob answered that he had seen him perform at the Zon, but had never really talked to him.

"He's probably either fallen asleep again, or is working on new lyrics to _Icebox Woman_, he's too passive to do something like driving to the Zon and picking a fight."

Ethan then grinned and finished with, "Because that would require getting up and, you know, doing stuff."

Max and Bob both laughed at that, then Ethan turned to check on Josh who was finishing his beer and then noticed being the center of attention, so he managed to turn on his barstool and gave Ethan a grin and slurred something about feeling good.

Ethan just grinned and shook his head, "I think you're going to be calling it an early night J-man."

He helped Josh off the barstool and told Bob that they'd just catch a cab back home, the blue-haired punk just told them to be careful.

"I always am man." Ethan answered while slinging Josh's arm over his shoulders and began half-leading, half-carrying him towards the exit.

* * *

"Ethan's a nice kid." Max said once Ethan and Josh had left the Zon.

"Yeah he is," Bob replied while getting himself and Max another round of beers, "Josh is cool too, when he isn't showing off how much of a lightweight he is."

Max just snickered, while privately trying to hide just how much of a lightweight _he _was also.

Then the current band, the AntiShambles finished their set, much to the relief of anyone with any taste in music, and the next band began to get their stuff ready.

"Hey," Bob said to Max, "Who's playing next anyways?"

"Well from the looks of it, the Harpies." Max answered with a slight twinge of anger at Mystik Spiral's official nemesis in the music biz.

Bob hid his relief and said some stuff in praise of the M-S that made Max feel better, then he noticed two new arrivals.

Sandi and her Fielding Prep boy-toy, Stephen Pierson-Wells II.

For some reason he couldn't explain, Bob felt… Jealous.

He turned to Max and said, "I think I'll call it an early night too man."

"Can I catch a ride?" the Drummer of Mystik Spiral said, not quite hiding the begging in his tone.

Bob raised an eyebrow and Max explained that his van was broken, again, and he didn't have the cash for a cab.

"Sure, you can tag along." Bob answered and Max responded by giving a child-like cheer of joy, which just made the blue-haired kid grin and shake his head.

* * *

Dinner at the Sloanes was an interesting affair, in that it gave Daria several ideas for murder mysteries that began at the dinner tables of rich people and ended in horrible things happening to the guests.

There had been five courses served, by actual _servants _no less, between the silverware, the china, and lets not forget about the table made out of some wood that she hadn't even heard of.

There was enough money on display to pay for four or five college tuitions.

"And I haven't even thought of how much the décor costs," Daria thought to herself while eyeing a piece of lamb, "Probably several human souls."

To keep herself from being intimidated by all this, and deep inside the recesses of her psyche Daria was willing to fess up to that, she focused on the Sloanes themselves.

Angier and Kay Sloane were kinda nice, just like Ethan had said, and Elsie seemed to be on Daria's wavelength, again just like Ethan had told her, so with some forewarning, she had a basis in which to begin talking to them.

"You go to Lawndale High?" Kay asked once it became clear that Daria wasn't a Fielding girl, "I have a nephew that goes there."

"Ethan right?" Daria replied, shocking Kay and Angier and revealing that Tom hadn't told them the story of how they had met.

"Are you and Ethan friends?" Angier asked out of curiosity, finding Daria to be a bit withdrawn and strange, but very intelligent.

"Yes actually, we are." Daria answered, "I met Tom through Ethan by accident."

That sentence alone had Elsie suddenly finding her food _very interesting_, since she was looking at her plate to the exclusion of everything in the room.

Kay smiled and replied, "How did that come about?"

Tom picked up the thread here, "Remember when Uncle Michael came to call?" Then when his parents nodded he continued with, "Well Elsie and myself stayed with the Yeagers at that time, and on the first night Daria came by to meet with Ethan."

Tom then smiled and chose his words very carefully, "Someone in Lawndale wanted to set up a new club of some sort, and she went to Ethan for advice, and discovered that the Yeagers were entertaining us as guests."

Daria then concluded the story for Tom with, "We started talking that night, and I guess we haven't really stopped yet."

Elsie felt a wave of relief wash all over her soul as Angier and Kay both approved of the story and the topic was switched.

"That was a close one." Elsie thought to herself, hoping against hope that the subject wouldn't come up again anytime soon.

There were too many felonies going on that night to be able to talk her way out of a severe punishment if her parents caught wind of any of it.

* * *

Janet Barch finished tying off her bathrobe as she exited the bathroom and smile at the sight of her three men sleeping in a tangled pile of flesh on the pile of blankets and pillows she had set up in her living room.

After leaving Oakwood, she had arraigned for Timothy to meet Tom Griffin and Wind Lane, and was delighted to learn that they all knew each other from one of O'Neill's wussy seminars.

It had taken some doing, but she had gotten Skinny on board with exploring with Tom and Wind, all under her direction and for her pleasure of course.

"It doesn't get much better than this." Barch thought to herself with glee.

She had three sensitive men at her beck and call, her LYING CHEATING BASTARD EX-HUSBAND was dead, the evidence was destroyed by fire, and for good measure she had dumped the gun in a ravine in the woods, and once in Lawndale had thrown away the clothes she had been wearing at the time in a random dumpster.

She was free as a bird, and all was right with the world.

* * *

Jane Lane sighed at the familiar sight before her, Trent was on the couch passed out with guitar in hand, but what was unfamiliar was the large amount of empty beer cans all around him.

She glanced down at the coffee table and noticed among the debris of Casa Lane that his songbook was open.

Jane picked it up and read Trent's latest attempt at a song, which turned out to be yet another version of _Icebox Woman._

"Hmm… So I guess it's over for good this time." Jane noted to herself with some relief, Monique was a nice girl but she and Trent always brought out the worst in each other.

They didn't belong together, simple as that.

"Wait." Jane said to herself once she reached an odd lyric and read it outloud.

"_You stomped on my heart/my heart/tore it two/then fed it to your Lawndale Lion Cub/and made him yours."_

"Woah," Jane breathed, "Trent wrote a song lyric that wasn't total suck."

She then glanced around the room, waiting for reality to collapse, but was disappointed when it didn't happen.

"Damn, I guess I'll be going to school tomorrow after all."

* * *

Ethan finished tucking Josh into his own bed and kissed his now sleeping lover on the cheek and whispered, "Goodnight."

He then glanced at the stark white walls of his bedroom, letting the soothing sameness rock himself into dreamland, with the one person in life that truly mattered right next to him.

In a bed that was a bit small for two people, but it just ensured that they were closer together.

The next day at Lawndale would probably be rather draining in light of the madness of Ms. Li's total destruction.

"At least we have each other." Ethan said to himself in a half-state of awareness before completely drifting off.

Meanwhile, in spite of being in Hypnos's grip, Josh smiled.

* * *

"So all in all I think we had a good time last night." Ethan concluded with a quick glance at Josh to make sure that he was ok.

At his side, Josh was keeping pace with the group, but he seemed rather peaked and hadn't said a whole lot that morning.

Other than telling Ethan "Good morning." Back at home, then had headed straight for the toaster and the fridge for some Ultra Cola.

But back in the present, Jane laughed and replied, "Yeah, about the whole 'Monique' thing, I'm glad that she and Jeffy hooked up, because it means that she and Trent are over for keeps."

"But isn't she worried about the whole age thing?" Daria asked with some concern, "I'm not even sure if he's sixteen yet."

"Only if people make noise about it," Ethan answered simply, "And the whole Older woman/Younger guy thing is more acceptable to people than… Other combinations."

Ethan sighed on the last, which brought a speculative air on from Daria and Jane, Ethan noticed this and added, "And yes this is from personal experience, and yes I already told Josh this story."

There was a moment of silence before Jane ventured, "So, spill already!"

Ethan sighed again, not really liking to talk about it but never the less he told them the story.

"Have you ever wondered _how _people found out I was gay at my old school? Well as you know I entered Freshman year after skipping 8th grade, I didn't really know anyone there, and I already had a reputation as the weird kid with the hippie parents, in a very rural conservative area."

Ethan then sighed once more, this time with nostalgia, "Then I met _him."_

"He was a new Assistant Coach for the sport's department, but the Coach often dumped the PE classes on him as well. He was fresh out of college, well-muscled, tan, and simply beautiful."

"I was instantly enamored, and one day after lagging behind in the showers a bit I ran into him in the locker room wearing nothing but a towel, and we starting talking and before I knew it, I found out he liked me too."

Ethan took in the looks of horror on Daria and Jane's faces and just laughed, "Don't worry, he didn't rape me, I was a willing participant, and it was the best three months I had ever had at the time."

"Then we got careless, one of the idiots on the football team caught us in his office doing, well, I'll let your imaginations do the work there."

Ethan felt Josh put a hand on his shoulder for support and he continued, "It was all hushed up, I was paid to be quiet, he got transferred, but everyone found out from the meathead, and… After the third bashing my parents had to pull me out, then my parents came to Lawndale to meet Daria's parents and the rest, is history."

Josh then gave his man a hug from behind and kissed his cheek before letting go, Ethan then glanced at Jane and Daria, both of whom were still walking but their eyes were as large as saucers.

"I'd prefer if you didn't spread that around, by the way." Ethan added unnecessarily, Daria and Jane weren't ones for spreading gossip around.

The four of them were quiet the rest of the way to Lawndale, until when the red-bricked building came into view, Josh asked Daria about dinner with the Sloanes.

"It went well, I think." Daria said in her usual monotone, glad that the very awkward silence had been filled with something besides thinking of what they had just found out.

Daria then told them a little bit about the evening, and got a laugh out of everyone when she mentioned how Elsie had gone very quiet when Tom and she talked about how they first met.

"But," Daria added with a wary look, "I've begun to see things about the world he comes from that I'm not sure I'm comfortable with, at least right now."

Ethan just shrugged and replied, "No can help where they come from Lady D, trust me on that one, and it's not like Tom's let the whole 'Old Money' thing go to his head, right?"

"Yeah." Daria conceded as they reached the entrance to Lawndale High.

"So my advice is to focus more on Tom and less on the 'Gone with the Wind' backdrop, besides." Ethan added with a snicker, "Tom is easier on the eyes than the fancy pants paintings and Faberge eggs."

And it was on that note that the infamous foursome entered Lawndale High School and, hopefully, into a more tolerable era.

* * *

Monique's vintage black Firebird pulled up into the student drop off area at her old Alma Mater and she gave the building a malevolent look.

"God it sucks even looking at that hellhole." Monique said to her passenger, Jeffy Grey.

He laughed and replied, "Yeah, but imagine still going there like I have to."

"Ugh!" Monique said while giving a theatrical shudder, before Jeffy decided to make her feel better with a brief kiss and his whispered, "So I'll see you tonight?"

"Oh yeah." Monique said to her new boy-toy before he skedaddled out of the car and she sped away, glad to be away from LHS.

Jeffy snickered to himself as he walked away from the curb, and rather enjoyed everyone's stares, but then again he had undergone quite the transformation in the last couple of days.

The football player and popular guy was now wearing dirty black jeans, the Harpies shirt from last night, his hair was a mess, and he smelled of unspeakable acts since he and Monique had gotten busy after his early morning shower that very day.

And with a proud strut in his step, Jeffy went into the battleground that was high school, feeling like a million bucks.

* * *

"And now that Jeffy's clearly lost his mind, all I have now for a safety is Jerome, or whatever." Quinn said sadly to her friends, Stacy, Tiffany, and Brooke, and noted the absence of Rene and Tori with annoyance.

"Speak of the devil." Brooke said to herself while pointing out the Three J's coming down the opposite end of the hallway.

Jamie was in the lead while Joey was talking to Jeffy right behind him, and Quinn distinctly heard the words, "Woah awesome dude! You're an inspiration to us all man!"

Jamie then called out to the back, "Yeah, I wish I could land a hot rocker chick man."

Quinn then loudly cleared her throat to get his attention, Jamie glanced at Quinn who had an angry look on her face and was tapping her foot on the floor in annoyance.

In the bygone days of yore, this would have sent any of the J's into a tailspin and they would have gone out of their way to make her happy again.

But Joey was with Stacy, who was now heading over to her boyfriend, Jeffy was now dating some other chick, and Jamie…

He just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking, giving a very public signal that he no longer cared.

Quinn froze in pure horror, Tiffany and Brooke stared at her as they began to realize what she was clearly still trying to process.

Quinn Morgendorffer, the most popular girl in school, had just been publicly blown off, and by her (now former) pets, the Three Js.

The screams echoed across the halls and seemingly all the way out of the building before the carrot-haired girl passed out into merciful unconsciousness.

* * *

Tori Jericho had discovered during her time dating Evan Larson that the only way to avoid endless conversations about exercise, track, Evan's track victories, and Evan himself, was to dominate the conversation as best she could.

"The things I do for love." Tori thought to herself for the thousandth time as her boyfriend began laying out an exercise routine that he hinted he'd like to see her try out.

Instead Tori mentioned the assembly they'd be going to, which would cut out at least part of first period.

"Oh yeah," Evan said to himself, "I hope whoever they hire to coach track is up to snuff, I mean Morris was a bitch but she always lead us to victory."

Tori suppressed a groan of frustration, the bastard had steered the topic all the way back to track again!

* * *

The Superintendent of the school district, Mr. Cartwright stood before the podium in the school's auditorium and finished his pre-written pep speech, not that he believed for a second that the students cared, but since the media was present in a small force for some good sound bites, he felt obliged to fake it.

"And sadly I am forced to announce that your former Principal, Ms. Angela Li was as of this morning formally checked into Brookside Rest Home, pending a complete psychological evaluation."

In the audience, Daria whispered to Jane, "I hope they don't ask her to make up a conversation involving two people talking."

While Jane snickered, Cartwright announced that Lawndale's current Acting-Principal, Gibson would, "Due to a stellar performance in this time of crisis." Take on the job on a permanent basis.

"So here's to Principal Gibson!" Cartwright finished and applauded as the former football Coach stepped out from behind the stage and waved to the crowd, he got polite applause from the student body, and enthusiastic cheers from the football players.

Kevin in particular was so enthusiastic that Mack was forced to intervene and remind Kevin to stop clapping after it became awkward.

Gibson just laughed it off and began his own speech, which resembled a pep speech prior to a big game, and forgot what he was talking about towards the end and wound up concluding with, "Go team!" and pounding his fist in the air.

The football players cheered on instinct, except for Joey and Mack, and Rex once he noticed Mack wasn't cheering.

Principal Gibson then introduced the new changes to the Coaching division of Lawndale High's faculty, boy's Coach John Clemons, and girl's Coach Kathy Powers, they of course received some polite applause.

Then Gisbon beamed and said, "And last, but certainty not least is Lawndale High's new Vice Principal, and a very special lady, Mrs. Morgedorffer."

"What?!" Daria said with her eyes bulging out of her head as a middle-aged, yet very handsome woman in a red power suit strode the stage and took the podium.

"Greetings students of Lawndale," Helen said sweetly, "Now I know that some among you already know who I am, but in time I hope to get to know each and every single one of you as I and the new members of the faculty work to make this school a better learning environment for everyone."

Ethan, Josh, and Jane were now openly staring at Daria who was looking at her mother as though she had landed in a flying saucer.

The only thing Daria could articulate at that point was, "Great, I guess torturing me in the privacy of my own home wasn't enough."

* * *

"So here's the footage from the security camera," Officer Davis said to the rest of the Oakwood Police Force that was present in the room, which was four bored fellow officers and the Sherriff.

He then rewound the security footage until he came to the first relevant image, a large, well built, woman entering the now identified man's room with a room key.

Then he fast-forwarded to Muddy entering the room and said, "This is the last known video of Muddy Grimes alive."

Then with another push of a button, the next person to leave the room was the woman, looking slightly disheveled.

"The building went up in flames a few minutes later," Davis said quietly, "And then we got the call about the suspicious vehicle, guess who was driving a car that matched the description?"

"Have we ID-ed her?" the Sherriff asked.

"Yes," Davis said, "An hour ago we talked to Muddy's wife Dallas, who freely admitted that she ahd Muddy were in the middle of a messy divorce, and she had come to Lawndale to visit family and that she suspected he had been following her."

"So it was Dallas?"

"No," Davis said flatly, "We have footage of her going all over town that night, clothing stores, the mall, the bar, she apparently spent the night with Charles Ruttheimer II, and he freely fessed up to the affair, in front of his wife no less."

"Real piece of work that guy is," The Sherriff replied, having gone to school with that egotistical jock turned successful businessman.

Davis continued with, "But Dallas did mention that Muddy's first wife, a Janet Barch had called her to harangue her and that Dallas had mentioned where Muddy had been staying, which she learned from a friend in town."

"Ah," The Sherriff said in a Sherlock Holmes tone, "The plot thickens."

Davis snickered, "Yup, and guess what I found once I pulled up her picture in our database?"

He then tossed some picks down on the table, some were from the camera footage, others from the Lawndale High Yearbooks.

They were a perfect match.

"Ok," the Sherriff said quietly, "Call the boys at Lawndale County and grease some wheels, we're going in to bring her in for questioning."

Davis nodded with a small grin of satisfaction at a job well done, and it had only taken a couple days to piece this case together.

"Open and shut," Davis thought to himself once more, "The way I like it."

**THE END**

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

Janet Barch left Lawndale high worn out to the bone, already looking forward to another date night with her three new pets, having already finished her grading.

It was so easy, just give the girls and 'sensitive' males A's, and the Neanderthals, i.e. the Straight Guys all low grades.

"And I get paid for it!" Janet thought to herself with glee once more, glad to do her part in breaking down the egos of those filthy MEN!

But then once she cleared the doors, she caught sight of something that stopped her dead in her tracks, a police cruiser parked right next to her car in the teachers parking lot, and two uniformed police officers were striding up towards her.

"Ms. Janet Barch?" One of the MALE officers asked.

"Yes?" Janet asked in turn, not liking where this was going, and why was she seeing red?

"We need to bring up downtown for some questions." The Officer said while moving in closer and closer to the target.

Everything went completely red, Janet Barch snarled in pure fury, "NO WAY YOU, YOU MAN!"

Then with the force of years of pathological anger, Janet broke her heels as she ran at top speed and plowed through the first office with the force of a small truck and made her bid for freedom.

She made it all the way to her car door before the second officer managed to get a clear shot and fired his stun gun at the psycho, sending over 75 thousand volts of electricity coursing through her.

"AHHHHEEEEEE!"

"God she was a bitch." The officer with the stun gun said to himself, having had the displeasure of dealing with Ms. Barch when he was a student at Lawndale.

His partner in the meanwhile came back to the land of the living with a small groan and managed to crawl a bit before pulling himself up off the ground, his body aching all over, but when he saw that the perp was down, he felt just a tiny bit better.

Then he tried to stand up completely and nearly fell over before catching himself back on the car and struggled with his radio to call for back up.

They would probably need it.


	8. Chapter 8: Negotiable Education

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 8 Negotiable Education**

Ethan turned his head to look at Daria who just sighed before poking at her mother's attempt at vegetarian cooking before she whispered, "We'll get pizza later, just pretend to eat it."

Ethan gave a very small smile and mouthed back, "Meat lovers, and heavy on the meat."

Daria gave a silent snicker and retorted jokingly, "Of course _you_ would want meat."

Ethan snickered at that, and then realized that other occupants at the table had heard that and were now staring at him.

Without missing a beat he looked at Quinn and said, "It was her."

Then Daria and Ethan snickered together while Quinn Morgendorffer just made noises for a while until Helen filled the void with more bragging prattle about her new job.

"Well after the Superintendent made me _that _offerI really couldn't refuse." she said, picking right back up where she had left off.

Willow smiled at that and replied, "Of course not Helen, it's wonderful to see you return to your roots."

Quinn raised an eyebrow at that, thinking that her mother's decision to leave the Firm and go back to teaching was a horrible idea, even worse she was now Lawndale Vice Principal!

"This combined with the J's dumping me has sent my popularity into a tailspin!" Quinn thought to herself once more, before remembering to try and calm down or else she'd panic and pass out again.

And she couldn't afford to muss up her hair in times like this, not with her precious popularity at stake.

Ethan glanced at Quinn for a brief moment before returning his focus on anything else but her, since the events of his first days at Lawndale, he and Quinn hadn't talked, during the times when he had come to the Morgendorffers either to see Daria or eat with her parents, he had avoided Quinn like the plague.

"She at least has had the decency to return the favor," Ethan thought to himself while trying to force down what might have been cabbage, "There isn't really anything left to say."

Daria in the meanwhile was keeping her focus on the Yeagers or her father, she didn't have anything to say to Quinn, and as for her mother.

"She could have at least left a note MENTIONING THIS!" Daria thought to herself once more, "This isn't the kind of thing you surprise your kids with and expect it to go down well."

But in the meanwhile, Helen continued to boast without quite boasting about the deal she had cut with Cartwright, which involved an impressive salary, benefits, the works.

"And since he was so desperate to have a competent person clean up Li's mess, I was even able to get him to grease some wheels at the old Firm so that they wouldn't make too much noise about me taking the job."

"Then why is Eric still calling?" Daria asked suddenly, raining on Helen's parade.

"Well…" Helen began to stammer to find her place, "Well I think he's just having trouble… adjusting, to the abrupt changes."

Daria then whispered to Ethan that she was putting it very mildly.

"The last phone call could be heard all through the house," she explained with glee, "He alternated between legal threats, crying, anger, crying, begging Mom to come back, and more crying."

"So all in all Eric is moving past his loss and pressing forward with his life." Ethan concluded with the kind of smile that would make Elvis proud.

Then after Helen finished with her bragging, for a few minutes, she was forced to address an ugly speedbump on her road to VP success.

"And as for the unfortunate incident with our former colleague, Ms. Barch…" Helen then sighed, "Well if and when she gets this sorted out with the police, she's been effectively terminated at Lawndale High. So we've had to get a substitute until her replacement can make arraignments to move closer to town."

"Who's the sub?" Ethan asked out of idle curiosity.

"Oh you'll see…" Helen said with glee and a smile that reminded Ethan of a smile Daria would give just before unleashing an epic plan that brought horror and misery to her foes.

"God help us all." Ethan thought with dread growing in his gut, he even thought about praying, then remembered that there wasn't a god at all.

It would be a waste of time.

* * *

"So what's up D?" Ethan asked once he and Daria were safely secure in her bedroom, Daria was laying on her bed with her back propped up on the padded wall, Ethan was sitting in her computer chair facing her.

Daria grunted and then voiced her complaints about the situation, "What I just don't get is that she just ups and does this, without a word to anyone about it, I mean she could have said _something! Anything!"_

"I mean hell, she could have just left a note on the fridge or something."

Ethan clicked his tongue and replied, "Not a bad idea, since the fridge is the only place where the entire family in any household is guaranteed to congregate at some point during the day."

They both snickered at that, but once it was over Ethan had a thought and expressed it.

"Maybe her taking this job might, just might be a good thing."

"Why?" Daria asked flatly, having no clue where this was going.

"Maybe she got sick of the rat race," Ethan replied, "You've mentioned how much time she's put in at that firm in order to become full partner and how her boss dangles it to keep her going like crazy."

"Yeah."

"So maybe, just maybe, she figured it out and realized that she didn't want to keep slaving away without any tangible reward, so she took a job that might offer it to her instead."

"Uh Ethan," Daria answered as if she was worried about his health, "She's working at our High School, remember?"

"Oh yeah, well I guess the only thing left is pizza." Ethan answered in turn, not having anything else to add.

"I'll buy." Daria said quietly, bringing joy to Ethan's life since there wasn't much out there that was better than free food.

* * *

"Well you were right about one thing Daria," Ethan said after wiping off his face, "I do love Meat Lover's."

"Don't you mean, 'you're a lover of meat'?"

"That too." Ethan replied with a grin while sitting across from Daria in a booth at Pizza Prince, while they waited for their significant other's and Jane to arrive.

They chatted about the latest news about Ms. Barch, which ranged from her being committed alongside Ms. Li, in prison being tortured by the guards, and everything in between, the only thing that was certain was that it had taken seven very large uniformed police officers to haul her away in the end.

That and three Tasers and a stun gun.

As Ethan and Daria relished the latest bit of snark they had squeezed out of the situation, Tom, Josh, and Jane arrived together, Josh slid into Ethan's side, Tom with Daria, Jane grabbed an empty chair from a nearby table and pulled it up to the side of the booth.

After Tom kissed Daria on the cheek, making her blush a very pretty shade of red, he gave Ethan a faux death glare and asked, "Ok so was it you or Josh who convinced Elsie to get that tattoo?"

"What?!" Daria and Jane said in unison.

"How did you find out about that?" Josh asked with horror flooding his eyes.

"Oh crap," Ethan breathed, "Look I'll take the fall for it so she doesn't get in any more trouble than…"

Tom cut him off with the most shocking thing that he could have said in that situation.

"Actually I think it looks good on her." Tom said with a small smile.

Then he took joy in rendering his friends speechless and laughed a little.

"I didn't rat her out to the rents." Tom explained, bringing visible relief to Josh and Ethan's faces, and unintentionally revealing that they had been in on it together.

"What happened was that she was on a ladder in the library getting a book on a high shelf and I looked at the wrong time just as the back of her shirt came up a bit."

"Ah." Ethan breathed, glad that Elsie hadn't been busted by some other, more embarrassing means.

"So what does Ms. Sloane have exactly?" Jane asked out of curiosity, even Daria would admit to a small touch of interest in this subject.

Tom grinned like the kid that used the last roll of toilet paper, "She has a gothic fairy on the small of her lower back."

"Tramp stamp." Daria and Jane said in unison again, causing them both to glance at each other in worry.

"Don't worry," Ethan said with a grin, "You're not a hive mind yet."

"Yeah you lack the bionic implants of the Borg, or whatever." Josh added with a grin of his own.

Tom turned back to the topic up for discussion and added, "So now that I have good blackmail material on her, how would you suggest I use it?"

Daria made a sound and replied, "Well since a tattoo lasts forever, and I assume by her and your reactions that your parents don't like them and won't be jumping on the supportive bandwagon anytime soon, I'd save it and use it for when you really need her."

Tom grinned and replied, "Ok you're the expert."

"You know it."

"That's why I love you." Tom said before kissing Daria again, making her blush even more furiously.

"Dwaaaaaaaa." Jane went in a cooing voice, "Now I think I'll be in the bathroom, puking."

Ethan and Josh looked at each other for a moment, then began making out, causing Jane to go, "Ok ok I can take a hint." And stalked off.

* * *

The next day at Lawndale, Ethan and Josh came to school hand in hand, just in time to see Jeffy step out of Monique's car before she sped away.

The jock boy was now wearing the kind of clothing associated with the rock n' roll set, his hair was a mess, only the shoes hinted at an athletic bend.

Lawndale's first open gay couple gave him a wave, which was returned and they and the rest of the student body filtered into the hell of High School.

After getting their books, Ethan and Josh quickly made a beeline for their homeroom, which was Janet Barch's old class, curious as to who was the sub.

When Ethan opened the door and entered first, he halted in midstep, causing Josh to bump into him and go, "Hey man keep walking… Woah!"

The Woah came about when he caught sight of the sub.

"Hello Ethan!" Kay Sloane said with a warm smile and a kind wave.

"Oh… Hey Aunt Kay." Ethan replied weakly while he got around to moving and finding his usual seat, Josh sat right next to him.

Unfortunately a couple other students had been coming in at the time and heard Ethan call her his Aunt, the word quietly spread around the student body in the class as they filtered in, causing Ethan to grit his teeth.

"Good morning students," Kay Sloane said with a benign smile as she wrote her name on the board, "I'm Mrs. Sloane and I will be filling in for a few days until your new Science teacher arrives in Lawndale."

Now Kay Sloane might very well be an idle rich woman, but she had gone to Bromwell and one of her minors had been in teaching, even if she didn't use it.

And she was a sharp cookie and had heard some of the students whispering about what a couple of gossips had overheard, but calling it out might cause more problems than it would solve so she let it slide.

"Now according to the notes left over the next lesson would have involved astronomy." Kay Sloane began in a much more business-like tone.

"However the assignments are… Strange." Kay added artfully while thinking of some of the questions Janet had written like, "Find Orion in the night's sky, then write a 200 word essay on why you think he needs to carry a weapon to feel like a man."

"So I've created a new set of assignments for this particular in-depth study of Astronomy. So if you would open your books to page 283…"

"Wow," Ethan thought to himself, "She's actually pretty good at this."

* * *

In the meanwhile Daria, Jane, and several other girls were getting their first taste of the new Girl's PE under the reign of Coach Kathy Powers, whom most of the students were already calling CP.

"I like her better than Coach Morris." Daria said simply while the short, dumpy, middle aged, yet powerfully built woman got the girls to team up for rounds of indoor tennis.

"You'd say that if they hired in the Bitch of Buchenwald and she had us making furniture out of Holocaust victims skins." Jane retorted with a sardonic tone.

"True." Daria conceded without missing a beat, which caused her to miss hitting the ball back to her partner.

"Yea!" Brittany Taylor cheered while jumping up and down, and causing other things to bounce as well, "I'm really good at this!"

Daria just gritted her teeth, not feeling up to reminding Brittany that normally a tennis opponent would be _trying _to get the ball to bounce back.

* * *

Coach John Clemons was a clear devote of the Cult of Football, since instead of having the Boys PE do something, like, _other stuff_, he just had them toss around the old pigskin.

"Some things never change." Ethan sneered before revealing that he a pretty good throwing arm for a guy that looked so tall and lanky.

Unbeknownst to him, the new Coach Clemons was sizing him up, wondering if he might make a good addition to the team.

* * *

By the time Ethan reached O'Neill's class and sat next to Bob it was clear something was wrong, in lieu of their teacher doing the _teaching _part of his job.

Timothy O'Neill was alternating between the lesson plan and random sobs of, "OH GOD, WHY, WHY, WHY JANET WHY?!"

Jane leaned over and whispered, "You should see my brother Wind."

"What?!" Daria, Ethan, Josh, Bob, and Andrea (who had overheard) said almost with the same breath.

"Oh apparently Ms. Barch really gets around," Jane explained with a red lipstick sneer, "She had quite the harem going on with my brother, O'Neill, and apparently Sandi's Dad."

Bob's eyes bulged and he made the "What?" sound of shock again.

"Tom Griffin was in our house with Wind this morning, both of them sobbing their eyes out with Trent running tissue duty for like three minutes before he ran out in terror."

"Trent, ran?!" everyone else said like Jane had announced that she had the ability to fly.

"Well that was because out of the blue, Wind and Tom during their touchy feeling crying session, suddenly stopped crying and started making out while Wind begged Tom, "Just make me feel _good!"_

Everyone else shuddered, including Jane.

"Yeah… that' was the last I heard of them since I did some running too, and I pray to God that they're done and gone by the time I go back."

"And that's when exactly?" Ethan snarkingly asked.

"Hmm… I'll give it two days, a week at the most." Jane answered before shuddering again.

To get away from the disturbing topic, Bob the Punk brought up a subject slightly less disturbing, tutoring the Sporto's of Lawndale High.

"Oye!" Ethan sounded in annoyance, "Is that noise still on?"

"Unfortunately yes," Bob replied, "And last I checked they're going to drag us to a special assembly during last period to lay out the ground work, then we start the tutoring, tonight."

Daria headbutted the table and begged to be put out of her misery.

Andrea just replied drearily, "Sorry, I left my sledgehammer in the car."

Ethan then headbutted his desk, but knew that the sweet release of death would not come.

"I'm fucked." he concluded bitterly.

* * *

"Did Gibson just tell the athletes to 'Go out there and learn some shit'?" Ethan asked incredulously to Daria, who was conveniently sitting right next to him on stage, along with several other 'brains'.

"Yes," Daria replied flatly, "I believe he did."

"Just be thankful your mother wasn't here to hear it." Ethan replied with a small poke at Helen Morgendorffer's new status.

"Heh," Daria laughed sarcastically, "A couple days on the job and she's already found ways to work non-stop on one thing or another."

Ethan glanced at the former football coach turned Principal and thought, "Well with a guy like him at the helm, is it shocking that the VP is doing a lot more work than the last guy did?"

Ethan then glanced down the row of students that had been designated as 'Brains', he recognized Mack and Jodie, the Kid who always wore 'The Head' shirt, Cindy Brolsma, her Goth friend Kristen, a group of Nerdy kids that always hung out together, the nice blond guy Ronnie, and a couple other students that Ethan didn't recognize.

As Jed Gibson rallied the troops, Ethan glanced around out of boredom and when he looked to the backstage area, Aunt Kay was standing there and gave him a polite wave, Ethan nodded in acknowledgement but couldn't do much else at that moment.

Gibson then got down to some business and had some volunteers hand out the schedules for the tutoring, the sessions would last for an hour and a half and would happen for over two weeks, one tutor would be assigned to a group and would cover the various required subjects.

Ethan's group as it turned out would be the guys off the Track team mixed in with some football players.

"Well at least I'm not stuck with Kevin." Ethan said with a sigh of relief when he looked at the names.

Mack had that dubious honor and just put his head in his hands and began to hope against hope he could pull off a miracle.

Daria in the meanwhile noticed her list was also a mix of people off the football team and girl's teams, and the cheerleaders for some reason.

"Oh great, Brittany." She muttered to herself, only thankful for the fact that she wasn't going to be dealing with Brittany and Kevin together.

Jodie in the meanwhile took her selection of soccer players, basketball players, and a couple football guys and was grateful for the lack of overt dunderheads on it.

"Go team!" Gibson cheered, signally the end of his speech, and on cue the attendees erupted in applause, except for the brains but no one was counting them.

For now.

* * *

"Hey Aunt Kay." Ethan said kindly, he had bounded from the stage the instant the assembly was over and gone over to talk.

Kay greeted him in turn and then asked, "So how did I do in class for my first time teaching?"

"You were great," Ethan answered honestly, "I think you actually got them to learn something."

Kay laughed at that, and then sighed and replied, "Well not all of them, there's this one boy and girl who just don't seem able to retain any information I give them."

Ethan asked if they were Kevin Thompson and Brittany Taylor.

"How'd you guess?" Kay asked out of morbid curiosity.

Ethan just smiled and answered, "Because I go to school here."

They both laughed at that for a minute, and just as they finished Daria came into view from behind and she said, "Hello Mrs. Sloane, sorry to bother but they're going to drag us to our groups soon."

Ethan just sighed, having wanted to talk to his aunt some more, maybe even ask her how things were going between her and Mom.

"I know that they've talked on the phone, but Mom is so… Robotic when she does it." Ethan thought again about the situation, he wasn't even sure if they had met face to face since the Cove.

But duty called and he said his goodbyes and followed in Daria's wake to begin tutoring his fellow peers, and hope that the hundred bucks he was being paid would be worth it in the end.

"It probably won't be." Ethan thought to himself, even as he planned to use that cash to help pay for his next round with Axl and the tattooing gun.

* * *

Ethan paused for breath after finishing a basic rundown on the structure of a Cell for Biology, which was coincidentally one of his best subjects, and not just because of Ms. Barch's previous grade inflation.

It hadn't been a complete fiasco to start, but after finding out that half the track guys hadn't even bothered to bring their books, Ethan had been forced to order them to share the ones they did have, which caused grumbling and dirty looks.

"Think of it as an incentive to actually _bring _your books for the rest of our time together." Ethan had snapped at them, already clearly irritated.

After that hiccup the session went ok, in that Ethan felt like he was hammering everything into stone with a broke chisel.

"No wonder our teachers are so fucked up." Ethan thought to himself with frustration after the fifth guy he asked the same question too couldn't come up with an answer.

He glanced around the room after he had felt comfortable enough to let them work on the worksheets drawn up by Aunt Kay, he noticed that even the dumbest among them were putting real effort into it.

"At least they're trying," Ethan thought to himself with some relief, "I guess the threat of not playing sports and getting the cushy scholarships is good motivation."

His gaze fell on Evan Larson for a moment, Ethan vaguely remembered talking to the beautiful brown-haired Track star once back when Jane was interested in him, then later she had told him that Evan was a jerk.

Out of all the students Evan was the one who seemed to be _really _trying to learn all this as fast as he could, as much as he could.

"Maybe I should tell him to slow down a bit," Ethan thought to himself before dismissing the thought out of hand, "Nah, he needed a good kick in the ass if half of what Jayne said is true."

* * *

"Please God!" Evan prayed to himself while struggling to figure out a question about Mitosis, "Please God help me! I've got to get this!"

Even before the tutoring program had officially begun, on the very hour that Evan had learned that Coach Morris had been fired, his first thought had been, "Oh shit! I don't think I'm getting byes anymore."

Which meant that he would have to actually learn this crap, or else he wouldn't be on track, which would make him a….

He could bring himself to think of the L-Word.

"I just have to do this!" Evan thought trying to hype himself up, "It's just like a track meet, just get out there and DO IT!"

It would be nice if it all made just a tiny bit more sense to him though.

* * *

"My. God. the stupid. it hurts!" Daria moaned after catching sight of Ethan in the halls after enduring the longest hour and a half of his life.

"I assume that things went swimmingly well?" Ethan asked looking very disheveled.

"I want to hurt someone, her name starts with a B." Daria replied darkly.

"Try teaching Kevin anything that doesn't involve football, beer, or sex." Mack complained as he approached the two of them with Rex following in his wake, feeling slightly out of place.

Daria and Ethan both shuddered, while silently counting their blessings.

Then the three of them began to compare notes, while Ethan's struggle with Track guys without textbooks or the ability to answer questions was given some small sympathy, the big bucks were reserved for dealing with the Duo of Dumb, Kevin and Brittany.

"So now I'm pretty sure that Brittany knows what those funny symbols in those math problems mean." Daria had snarked at one point, "Now I have to get her to figure out how to _solve the damn problems!"_

Mack threw in a line about Kevin, "I tried to teach the class about the Robber Barons, but Kev managed to conflate them with those Red Baron frozen pizzas, and he nearly got everyone else thinking that factories in the 19th century made pizzas and then had to fight to eat them."

Rex just laughed at that, "I don't think anyone really bought it, but it was funny."

He then wilted under the steely eyed gaze of three, very emotionally exhausted brains looking for an outlet to their frustrations.

"Uh… Want to get out this place? Go get food or something?" Rex offered up lamely, hoping to get out of a massive tongue lashing.

"Yes!" all three of them breathed, wanting to go far away now.

* * *

At Cluster Burger, Rex and Mack sat next to each other, while Ethan and Daria took up the other side of the booth, eating enough processed transfats to kill a large bull.

Seeing that everyone was starting to perk up under the influence of sugars, salts, and grease, Rex decided to ask his man and present smart company something he had come up with.

"I'm thinking about coming out to my parents." Rex said quietly into the silence, his words just hung in the air for a minute before they were processed.

"Cool." Ethan replied, glad that Rex was willing to take such a big step.

"Uh, dude my parents are redneck alcoholics, I don't think it's going to go down well." Rex replied flatly, almost as flatly as Daria's normal speaking tone.

"Then why…?" Mack began to ask before Rex cut him off with, "Because I'm sick of faking being straight for them when I'm at home. So fuck it, I'm going to be honest with them for once, and by the by do you guys know anywhere I can crash because I'm going to need it."

Ethan took a deep gulp of his Super-Sized Soda and answered, "Maybe you should plan this out in advance, just in case it does go as badly as you think it will."

"I think that's what he's trying to do right now Ethan." Daria replied reproachfully.

"Oh, sorry."

Mack pulled Rex closer to him and just held him while he said, "I can talk to my mom about it, but since we're kinda seeing each other she might not be comfortable with us, you know, living together."

Ethan and Daria both offered to talk to their parents about it, as a just-in-case thing, since there was a chance it wouldn't be needed.

"It'll be needed." Rex replied in a voice so quiet it bordered on a whisper.

There wasn't much else to say after that.

* * *

"Of course Ethan," Willow answered warmly, "If your friend needs a place to rest his head for a few days then he can stay with us."

"Cool." Ethan replied, not revealing his worry that if it was needed that Rex might need a place to stay longer than a few days.

* * *

"If it does come down to that Daria I promise to do everything I can to make sure that Rex Attor gets all the help he needs to deal with this hypothetical situation." Helen Morgendorffer answered after Daria finished laying out the situation for her at home in the living room.

"I'll admit to not knowing him that well," Daria replied while cleaning her glasses, "But from what I've been told, his home situation is pretty grim, I have a feeling the situation will go from 'hypothetical' to 'real' very quickly."

Helen sighed, while thanking her instincts in not dropping her license to practice law, in fact she had decided to keep it.

"Just in case of things like this," Helen thought to herself, "I wish I had had more time to review the student records, get to know them, but it's only been a couple of days."

Helen was finding out once again the dark side of education, feeling powerlessness in the face of what her students had to go home too at the end of the day.

* * *

Rex finished talking to Mack and said, "Sweet, I love you, bye." And hung up his room phone with relief washing all over him, knowing now that if nothing else he could stay at Mack's for a while.

He then glanced at the duffle back in front of him, it was currently empty but he was going to pack it that night and store it in his truck.

"Not sure when I'm gonna do this," Rex said to himself quietly, "But when I do I'm gonna need to make a run for it, no telling if they'll just swing words, fists, or get out the shotguns."

Which reminded him, he might want to consider getting a Kevlar vest, maybe if he swiped one from the security guards office maybe…

* * *

Evan felt a little more confident than he did before about understanding the Biology material, that Ethan kid was pretty good at showing how it worked.

"Even though he was a bit of a prick." Evan's inner voice snipped at the rather caustic way that Ethan Yeager spoke when dealing with people he thought were genuinely stupid.

"I'm not stupid," Evan said back to himself and at an imaginary Ethan right in front of him, "I can do this, I just got to keep plugging away at it! That's all."

He glanced at the entire wall on the right side of his room dedicated to his trophies, medals, and awards for Track and some other assorted sports, if he could do all that, he could learn some school stuff too.

Evan then glanced at the clock, it was getting late and he had been cramming pretty much since he had gotten home, and he really needed some sleep.

"Tomorrow's going to be different." Evan said to himself, trying to hype himself up for it.

But unlike getting ready for a big meet, it wasn't working for actual learning for some reason.

* * *

Another day, another extra hour and a half at Lawndale of tutoring for the jocks, and an hour and a half of torture for the smart kids that had been drafted into doing it.

"Well now that they've been bringing their damn books things are going a little better." Ethan muttered to Josh in the back of Aunt Kay's Porsche.

"So I take it that it's not worth the hundred bucks?" Josh asked in reply as he held Ethan tight in his arms.

"Pretty much." Ethan murmured into Josh's shoulder.

Kay Sloane glanced into her rear-view mirror at the two of them, having heard most of it and felt a little down herself.

"Well I took the job to be nice, I mean it's only for another couple of days but it's kind of depressing to see what is coming down the pipeline for the future of the nation." She thought to herself while driving Ethan and Josh home.

For some reason this made Kay wonder how Ethan would have done if he had gone to Fielding with her children, rather than the local high school.

"It'd be a mistake to send him there now," Kay reminded herself firmly since he was clearly acclimated to Lawndale High, "And I doubt his parents would ever be sold on the idea, but still I can't help but wonder, what if."

However this idle contemplation was interrupted by arriving at the Yeager's humble abode, and in Kay's eyes it was about as humble as one could get.

However she hid her class snobbery well and wished Ethan and Josh a goodnight, but couldn't help but look askance at the fact that Josh had, when asked where his home was simply asked to be taken to Ethan's instead.

"My Mom won't care," he had said quietly, "She never does."

As the pair climbed out of the back of the car and began to head inside, Kay sighed, wondering what kind of life that the Decker boy had had in order to create that kind of distance between a son and his mother.

She considered following them in, perhaps Willow was home…

"No," Kay said to herself quietly while gripping the steering wheel, "An impromptu visit would be a bad idea, maybe if I asked to have lunch with her sometime the next time she calls… Yes that's a good idea."

As Kay pulled away and began the drive home, and an unusual night of work grading papers, she thought about the subject of distance again, and felt the sickening sensation she always felt when thinking about what had happened in the past.

"It will never fully heal," Kay reminded herself once again, "But it doesn't mean that it's not worth trying."

* * *

"So how's the tutoring going?" Tori asked while lying next to Evan, enjoying the feeling of his naked body pressed up against hers.

Her brown haired Adonis just rubbed his temples and replied, "Slow, but I think I'm starting to get some of it, enough to scrape anyway."

Tori then began to trace the ridges of his solid washboard abs delicately with her fingertips, unknowingly sending a small wave of pleasure to him.

"I just wish I didn't have to do any of it," Evan said once more, "I'd rather have the byes, so I could focus on what I'm actually good at, you know."

Tori then lifted herself up a bit and cocked her head to look at him a little better and went, "Huh?"

Evan sighed and continued, "I mean, everyone is good at something right? Your good at learning what people try to hide, right?"

"Yeah, I am." Tori acknowledged with more than a hint of pride, she liked being the girl who knew every secret.

"And I'm, well, not to sound conceited or anything, but I'm an athlete, the best guy on Track, probably one of the best that Lawndale High has ever had."

Evan then stroked his girlfriend's face, "And… When it comes to learning stuff that isn't related to what I'm good at… I, well, suck."

Tori just smiled at that and replied, "Maybe you just need a little extra help or something."

It was now Evan's turn to go, "Huh?"

Tori's smile grew, "Maybe if you talked one of the smart people into helping you on, like, the weekend or something."

Evan was confused but latched on to the first idea that came to mind, "Like, pay a brain to do my work for me?"

Tori licked her lips and replied, "Well that wasn't what I suggesting, but it's a better idea than what I had."

Evan just laughed and replied, "Cool, I had a good idea, maybe the tutoring is helping."

Tori's grin turned quite lusty and she began to slip down and replied while doing so, "Maybe…"

Evan didn't bother to answer that, since Tori quickly reached her target, and then thinking was too much effort for him.

But considering what she was up too, you can't blame him for it, this time.

* * *

"So you're sure that your parent's don't care about you living here?" Monique asked for the millionth time while Jeffy finished unpacking his clothes and putting them into a dresser drawer.

"Yeah," Jeffy replied with a very big smile, "They never really paid much attention to me unless they absolutely had to, so when I told them I was thinking about moving into my girlfriends place, they didn't ask too many questions."

Monique laughed at that, "Your family sounds fucked up."

"That they are," Jeffy replied a bit more sadly, "That they are."

A little later, when they were eating dinner, which was Chinese takeout, Jeffy felt that his leading lady was relaxed enough for him to broach a topic that he suspected would be… Complicated.

"So Monique." Jeffy began trying to pass it off as casual.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking, I mean I've told you about how I'm, you know, attracted to guys as well, right?"

"Yeah," Monique replied with some confusion, not sure where this was going, "And I'm perfectly ok with it."

"I know that, but… I've never, you know, acted on it." Jeffy began turning an impressive shade of crimson as he began to reach his point.

"And I… I mean I'm of two minds about it but… I was wondering if you would be ok with me… Trying it."

The last was said with a very nervous squeak, which made Monique smile as she replied.

"Sure, but one condition, I have to be there."

Then she laughed harder at how his eyes flew wide open and his jaw dropped.

"It's ok Jeffy," Monique said sweetly, "I've always wanted to try a three-way with two guys, so why not go for it?"

Jeffy's relief was palpable as he went from tense to relaxed within a matter of seconds, "…I love you." Jeffy said stretching out each word with awe and blissed out joy.

"I know." She replied with a seductive smile, "Now do you have a guy in mind or…?"

"Not sure yet," Jeffy answered quickly, "I mean I could think of several that I like, but they're sadly taken and I doubt they'd go for it."

Monique just shrugged her shoulders, "Don't worry then, I know someone that would be more than willing to go for something like this."

"Awesome!" Jeffy said with cheer and having to resist a triumphal fist pump in the air.

"But in the meanwhile…" Monique said lustfully while letting the last word trail off, her next suggestion would have been obvious to Kevin.

"Oh yeah." Jeffy replied with a thick voice with only a brief glance at his now empty carton of Chinese food.

Which was easily disposed of, leaving him and her the rest of the night to each other.

* * *

"I will give Brittany some credit," Daria conceded as she, Jane, and their friends Ethan and Josh made their usual walk to school, "She is at least trying, I just wish that her trying equaled actual results."

"It could be worse," Ethan reminded her, "You could be teaching Kevin."

That caused Daria to stop dead in her tracks and she replied very flatly, "Oh God not that, anything but that!"

"Heh, makes you more sympathetic to Mack's plight doesn't it?" Josh said with a smile that said that butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

"Makes me sympathetic for the actual teachers who deal with him on a weekly basis." Jane added with a dark laugh.

Then a voice in the distance yelled out, "Hey wait up." And one of the last people that any of the four had expected to talk to them ran up down the sidewalk to catch up.

"Hey Jamie," Ethan spoke up first, "Whats sup?"

Before them was the blond one from the Three J's, Jamie White, and coincidentally one of the guys in Daria's tutoring sessions.

"Not much," Jamie replied awkwardly while shuffling his feet, "I, uh, wanted to talk."

"Ok," Daria answered flatly, her eyes boring through his, making Jamie feel like a bug about to be pinned to a piece of Styrofoam, "So talk."

"Well I was kinda looking for some advice." Jamie said quietly, so quietly in fact he was forced to repeat himself.

"Is this about tutoring?" Daria asked as the group of five continued to walk towards Lawndale High.

"Well actually it's a bit more… Personal than that." Jamie admitted.

"Ok." Daria replied cautiously, having no clue what was bringing this on.

"Well I guess even you guys would know that I got over the whole Quinn crush," Jamie began clearly relieved to be getting this off his chest, "And it's nice to, you know, not be completely under her spell."

"That's understandable." Jane said from the back, for once not being snarky but actually kind of glad for the kid.

"Thanks," Jamie replied politely, "But not chasing Quinn around, and with the other J's with their girls has, well, given me a lot of free time and I… well…"

"Don't know what to do with yourself?" Daria asked, finishing Jamie's thought for him.

"Yeah!" Jamie replied gladly, happy that the Brains were understating his plight, "I don't want to jump into a relationship at the moment, and there's only so much to do that's fun so, well… I've got a big hole in my life right now and I was hoping if any of you had some advice."

"Well what do you like to do?" Ethan asked, now curious about the situation.

"Well besides football and the other obvious stuff, I like going to the arcade, partying, rough housing, you know, normal stuff." Jamie answered simply.

"Maybe you should try something new," Josh suggested, "Get out of your comfort zone, learn to play an instrument, do volunteer work, or try a new sport, break the mold man!"

"Hey," Jamie exclaimed hopefully, "Those are good ideas man."

"We do our best." Ethan snarked, bringing small laughs out of Jane, Daria, and Josh, and then Jamie joined in so he wouldn't be the odd man out.

Which made everyone else laugh harder.

* * *

Bob Sorenson got close to the back glass of Rex's truck and said through it, "Thanks for giving me a lift man."

"No problem Bob," Rex replied loudly enough to be heard through the open window, "You sure that your car can be fixed?"

"Yeah man," Bob replied while getting his bag out of the bed of the back of the truck, "It might take a couple days but I can wrangle it."

"Cool." Mack said from the passenger side seat inside the truck.

While Bob the Punk scrambled to get down on the ground, Mack looked at Rex and asked quietly, "So when are you gonna… you know?"

Rex sucked in some air and replied, "Not sure yet, I don't have the nerve, but I've got a bag prepared, when I'm ready I'll stick it in my truck, tell them, and then I'll probably have to bolt."

Mack wasn't sure what to say to that other than some words of sympathy, but even those sounded hollow.

So after he tried them, he then just leaned in and did something he hadn't really done since that drunken night.

Mack kissed him, full on the lips, and even with a small amount of tongue.

Rex's eyes flew wide open, but he didn't pull back, instead he returned it and when Mack pulled back he whispered breath fully, "Damn, that was good."

"I know I'm good." Mack replied with a grin.

"That's not funny." Rex replied with his own grin before leaning in and kissing Mack back himself.

After a minute both of them pulled back and Rex whispered, "And that wasn't funny either."

"I know," Mack replied happily, "But if we don't go we'll be late for class."

"Damn," Rex said sadly, "And I was hoping for more."

"Oh you'll get more, trust me." Mack said while having almost force himself to pull away and get his stuff, "I just would like to remember it this time."

Rex managed a weak laugh at that and replied, "No booze then."

"Hell no," Mack replied while opening the door and swinging his bag over his back, "Both of us stone cold sober, somewhere nice, just the two of us… alone together."

"Sounds good." Rex said with joy as he got his own stuff and headed on out, "It's a date then?" He asked once they were both out of the truck, not giving a crap who was listening in the student parking lot.

"It's a date Rex." Mack stated simply before heading towards LHS with a spring in his step, and the whole world seemingly at his feet.

"This is gonna rock!" Rex cheered to himself as he followed, feeling like the luckiest son of a bitch who ever lived.

* * *

Another round of tutoring, this time in English, and now that it was over Ethan thought of all the times DeMartino blew his top and wondered if doing the same might make him feel better.

Then he told Josh his thoughts while they walked their usual route home and got an interesting reply of, "If you start doing the eye thing, I might need to go man shopping."

Ethan just snickered at that, "If I start doing the eye thing, get me to a hospital, a.s.a.p.!"

They both laughed at that and then walked quietly for a few more minutes, regretting that Kay Sloane wasn't able to drive them this time, then Josh broke the quiet by asking.

"Why was Evan talking to you in the hall?"

"Oh you saw that," Ethan replied simply, "Well he came up to ask how I thought he was doing, and if I was willing to tutor him on the weekends."

"Please tell me you said no to both." Josh said in turn, and was that a hint of irritation in his tone?

"Sadly I had to admit that he is improving, but I told him there was no way I could do weekend tutoring, it's draining enough as it is doing it for money."

That made Josh smile and he said, "Good, the less your around that jerk, the better off you are."

Ethan grinned at that, "Duh, Jane gave us all a heads up on that clown."

They then spent an enjoyable few minutes making fun of Evan Larson behind his back as they reached the last block to Ethan's house, which at this point had become Josh Decker's home away from home.

"And what would the kids at school make of that?" Josh asked himself once more, idly wondering if it would blow up the gossip mill, or just be taken in stride like the Jeffy/Monique thing.

Ethan in the meanwhile contemplated the other thing that Evan had said that he hadn't told Josh about, or rather had hinted at.

"Nah," Ethan thought to himself again, "I don't need the money, so why sell my dignity?"

But he couldn't help but wonder how many other Lawndale brains wouldn't have the same scruples, sadly the list was pretty damn long.

* * *

Sandi Griffin took one step into the living room and stopped dead in her tracks once she got a good look at what was happening on the couch.

"Uh Sandi," Tom Griffin managed to say in between heated pants, "I thought, I mean this isn't…"

Sandi didn't respond, she was completely frozen.

Tom Griffin pulled himself, with visible reluctance, away from the complete stranger, a skinny _guy _with limp off-white blond hair, a red shirt, khakis, and a wimpy demeanor.

Suddenly Sandi shook herself hard, getting out of her stupor and she managed to mumble, "Are Sam and Chris…?"

"No!" Tom said loudly, "I mean they're at the Hebuca's with Damien."

"Oh." Sandi replied very flatly, she then took in a deep breath and all she could come up was, "I'm… I guess I'm going out, don't wait up."

She then turned around like a wind-up toy and then did her best to maintain a normal pace as she headed back to the door.

Once Wind Lane and Tom Griffin heard the door slam shut, Wind look up at Tom and said, "I thought you told her dude!"

"I… I was going to but…" Tom then trailed off weakly, not even having a defense for his cowardess.

Wind then shushed him and stood up, opened his arms and embraced Tom and whispered into his ear, "It's ok, this is new and scary for me too."

Wind then pulled back a bit to look deep into Tom's eyes and it only took a few seconds for them to start making out again like teenagers in heat.

"At least something good came of Janet Barch," was Wind's last rational thought for a while, "I met someone who really _gets me!"_

* * *

"Dude you have, like, the coolest room ever!" Sam Griffin crowed as he got a good look at Damien Hebuca's bedroom, the walls were black, covered in posters of bands that Sam was only starting to learn about, the carpet was blood red, and his bed was an antique four-poster number with intricate carvings of demons and monsters of all types.

"I know man." Damien Hebcua replied while flopping onto his bed and just lounged for a bit while his newly acquired friends Sam and Chris Griffin began to explore his bedroom, this being their first time in it.

It had been strange, but Damien Hebuca had previously been the isolated outcast at Glenfield Middle School, picked on and ignored by everyone, but then the two fighting brother duo, Sam and Chris got their hair dyed and somehow got all those piercings and instead of fighting each other, began fighting the bullies of the school for sport.

Then one day, when the weird scrawny Goth kid was being picked on by one of the biggest meatheads on their schools sports teams, Sam and Chris just showed up out of nowhere, and in two hits had the guy on the ground crying and begging for his Mommy.

After that Damien had attached himself to them like a barnacle, and now he really felt like he had been accepted, and it felt great.

"So when are your other friends getting here?" Damien asked while pulling himself up from the bed with reluctance.

"Rachael and Brian were both having to sneak out so it will be another hour," Chris replied while looking at a poster of a doll-like girl in a red dress slowly melting into a puddle, "Our other new buddy, Link should be here in a few, it's easy for him to sneak out apparently."

"Oh, cool." Damien replied in turn before asking if they wanted snacks or soda.

"Sounds good." Sam replied while looking in a mirror and checking his latest piercing, an industrial, to make sure it was ok.

"Then once the other's get here, we'll head on out and do what we always do." Chris added while thinking of ways to tweak his brother without it turning into a full-blown fight.

"And what's that?" Damien asked and then felt like a dork for doing so.

Sam just gave a dark grin and replied, "Whatever we feel like."

"Sounds good to me," Damien replied with his own smile, "In fact it sounds damn good!"

The three of them then gave exaggerated dark laughs that ended in a fit of actual giggles.

* * *

Rex gave himself a confident grin in the mirror and imitated a gangster from one of those gangster movies he liked and said to his reflection, "Oh yeah, I look good!"

Then with a swagger in his step, he spun around and still liked what he saw just fine, the nice dark blue shirt, black slacks, good dress shoes, combed hair, his goatee trimmed up, and a gold chain necklace he saved for special occasions.

Rex then winked at himself, feeling like dynamite and walked out of his bedroom and headed on out, but was interrupted in the living room by the rare instance of his Dad being sober enough at that hour to notice.

"What'chu dressed up for?" his father slurred in the seat of his favorite chair, NASCAR on the tube, his beer gut flying out his shirt, and several empties at his feet, and a full one in his fist.

"Going out," Rex replied carefully, "I got me a date."

"Ah," his Dad said with a sneer, "Well sometimes you gotta dress up fruity to get yourself some tush, eh?" Then his Dad laughed at his own excuse for wit.

Rex laughed back, another step in an act he wanted to end desperately and replied, "Yeah, it's a little much, but worth it once your in the backseat with 'em."

And with that, Rex said bye and headed on out the door, and managed to hold it in until he was in his truck.

The sigh of pure exhaustion, he was so sick of faking it for those two worthless sacks of crap he had for parents.

"Just another night or two," Rex said to himself while starting up his truck, "Then you'll tell'em, bug out, and never deal with them again."

In the meanwhile, he had to hook up with Mack at his place, then they'd go to wherever Mack had in mind.

"I just wish he had believed me when I said I don't like surprises." Rex thought to himself while playing with his radio to find a good station, but alas nothing was playing that he liked.

"I hope I don't screw this up." Rex said to himself, a knot of worry forming in his belly, he had been on dates with plenty of girls, had even gone through the motions of trying to get them in the sack, but no luck there (Thank God!).

But he had never dated another dude before, had no idea what to expect, but by God he was going to give it his all and hope for the best.

"As long as he isn't like that Quinn character on a date, I can handle anything." Rex thought to himself, that one date with Quinn Morgendorffer a year prior had been like slow torture.

* * *

Daria picked up the phone and dialed the number, dreading what Tom would say to her, thankfully the servants at the Sloane's manor knew her voice now so they put her through.

"Hi Tom."

"Oh hey Daria, what's up?"

Daria sighed audibly through the phone, "Well besides crappy tutoring, my Mom finally cornered me, she wants you to meet the rest of the family."

"Ok."

"…Uh, you do realize my fears about you fleeing in terror when meeting them, right?"

"Yeah but if it gets really bad, I'll just take you with me, you can handle my parents well enough, you can just live with me."

Daria's smile could be felt through the lines, "Not sure your parents would go for you having a live-in girlfriend Tom."

"Damn!"

"So I guess I'll see you tomorrow for dinner then?"

"Of course Daria, I can't let you suffer alone can I?"

"No you cannot Mister Sloane."

"It's a date then."

"Ok then, uh thanks for not, you know, freaking out."

"Heh, if I was the type to freak out, would you be dating me?"

"Hmm… Good point, and on that note, good night Tom."

"Night!"

_Click!_

* * *

Jamie White, Joey Black, and Jeffy Grey were having a sadly rare boy's night out at the arcade, just being three dudes like they always had been before the women folk had entered their lives.

"Get it, get it!" Joey yelled at Jamie as he fought to get Mr. Pacman away from the ghosts and towards the Strawberry.

The sounds of Pacman's final death issued from the machine, and Jamie, Jeffy, and Joey all groaned in defeat.

"Sorry guys," Jamie apologized with a look of abject defeat on his face, "I'm off my game."

"Dude it's ok chill," Jeffy said with concern, "It's just a dumb game."

"Yeah, yeah," Jamie replied while the three of them took off to sit on the benches for a minute, "But you know how it is for me now."

Joey put an arm around his buddy and replied, "Dude, it'll be ok, you just gotta do what Daria and Ethan suggested, break out of the mold."

Jamie looked at him and said, "I was thinking about that and I… I had an idea but it's kinda dumb."

"Dude just say it," Jeffy replied in turn, "It'll get it off your chest at least."

Jamie huffed and then said, "I was kind of wanting to try and learn to ride a bike."

"You mean like a motorcycle?" Joey asked, confused by how he said it.

"Yeah…" Jamie answered quietly, expecting to be laughed at.

"Dude," Joey replied with a big grin forming on his face, "Me and Stacy were going to do that this Summer."

"Really?!" Jamie and Jeffy both breathed in total shock.

"Yeah!" Joey replied excitedly, "They're doing classes through a special program at the bike shop in town, so you can skip steps in getting your Motorcycle license and me and Stac, thought, why not try it?"

"Cool," Jamie said with hope in his eyes, "I've got to sign up for this!"

"Sweet," Joey replied with a grin, "We can swing by the shop and get the paperwork for it, it's not much but your parents will have to sign it."

"That's no big, I can just forge the sigs." Jamie replied with a sly grin, and Jeffy added, "That's how I dealt with anything involving parental signatures, they didn't care, it kept me out of their hair."

Things went consciously quiet after Jeffy said that, it was always awkward to be reminded of just how dire things were between the Three J's and their parents.

Jamie decided to smooth it over by saying, "So paperwork, then more arcade?"

"Oh yeah!" the other two J's breathed and then high-fived each other, life was awesome again.

* * *

"It looks great Axl!" Ethan said while twisting his head to see his back in the mirror, the second session to get the green Chinese dragon on his upper back had turned out beautifully.

"Oh yeah!" Josh added while getting up out his chair where he had been sitting and chatting with Ethan and Axl, while they worked, and checking out Ethan's latest drawings as well.

Josh then pulled Ethan's face back around to face him once he was well within reach and kissed him and added once he broke away, "God you look so good right now."

Ethan just gave a lusty grunt and replied, "I always look good."

Josh snickered and retorted, "Careful, we don't need you getting an ego."

Axl in the meanwhile just went with the flow while putting his equipment away, he got all types in this place and he had seen much weirder stuff before, some of it a couple nights ago with that one guy who had revealed that he had a fetish for shaving people's heads.

It still made Axl's skin crawl to think about it.

But in the meanwhile Axl looked up at his new regular, Ethan Yeager, and decided now was as good a time as any to ask.

"Ethan," Axl said to him once he was completely disentangled from his boyfriend, "I have to admit that I'm impressed with the stuff you've brought in design wise."

"Thanks Axl." Ethan replied with a proud grin, it was good to hear his drawings praised, even if he wasn't as good as Jane Lane, it was nice to know that his stuff was worthy of acknowledgement.

"Have you ever thought about being a tattoo artist?" Axl asked while wiping his hands off with a dirty rag.

"Actually… No, I haven't." Ethan admitted, starting to get an idea of where Axl was going with this.

"Think about it kid," Axl replied with a rare smile of his own, "I think you'd have a future in it."

"Thanks man." Ethan replied with wonder in his eyes, even prouder that someone as good as Axl thought that _he'd _be good at something like this.

"You're welcome kid." Axl replied with a sly smile before he got down to business and collected his payment, and told him to come back anytime for more work, and set up the appointment for his third round for the Dragon tat.

* * *

"Wow," Josh said in awe as he and Ethan walked the sidewalks of Dega Street, "Axl thinks you could become a tat guy."

Ethan grinned at that and replied, "I know, is this cool or what?"

Josh grinned while snaking an arm around Ethan's bare shoulders, careful not to touch the tattoo, it was still sensitive enough that Ethan couldn't stand to wear a shirt, besides the ink was going to seep for at least a night and it would ruin fabric.

"It's super cool man, I can see it now, me married to a tattoo artist."

Ethan then felt a touch sad as he replied, "Gay marriage isn't legal in this state."

"It will be one day." Josh replied confidently before kissing Ethan on the cheek, "Count on it."

With confidence like that, Ethan didn't feel like arguing, maybe, just maybe enough people would wise up and shut down the morons.

"It happened at the LHS," Ethan realized to himself, "Maybe it could happen on a bigger scale."

He then told Josh his thought and got an interesting answer.

"I'd like to think what we've managed to set in motion at Lawndale is a very small part of that change." Josh replied with a bounce in his step, "Oh sure it's just a few kids at a high school in suburbia who've wised up, but you've got to start somewhere, right?"

"Right." Ethan said, enjoying the feel of open air on his tight, defined chest, and just took in the night and felt like King of the World.

* * *

Jeffy Grey practically _drank _the images that his eyes were pouring into his brain of the guy that Monique had introduced him too.

He was wearing a leather vest with no shirt, rock hard muscles, long flowing brown hair, soft dopey brown eyes, tanned skin, leather pants, black boots, and he had the slight, oddly alluring smell of motor oil and pot.

"Jesse Moreno," Jeffy thought to himself while the odd sort of tension held in the air while Monique made the basic introductions, "You're a freaking dream!"

While the three of them drank a few beers to loosen up a bit, Jeffy felt the butterflies in his stomach beating their wings, and yet…

"I'm soooo ready for this." He thought with as much confidence as he could muster as Jesse finished his beer first and crushed the can on his forehead, so once Jeffy finished after that he did the same, but he discovered something about forehead beer crushing the hard way.

It hurts.

"Ouch!" Jeffy cried unmanly while holding his forehead, not feeling any blood, but now worried about blood.

Jesse and Monique got in closer to him and checked to make sure he was ok.

"Sorry," Jeffy offered up lamely, "I never did that before."

Jesse just grinned and said, "I almost knocked myself out the first time I tried it, then again I did grab the full one by accident when attempting it so… There you go."

Jeffy and Monique snickered at that, and Jesse joined in good naturedly and only then did Jeffy notice how close the three of them were now.

And how much he wanted the both of them.

The snickering slowly died down, and a tense silence consumed the room, Jeffy licked his lips and almost made the mistake of verbalizing what he wanted.

However he swallowed his words and simply leaned in a bit and the other two followed suit without missing a beat.

Before he fully realized it, Jeffy's hands were on Jesse's pecs, exploring his exposed flesh while pushing the vest off, Monique was running her fingers through is hair, and Jesse's face was coming in closer and closer…

Then his lips met Jeffy's and the kid could have sworn that he saw stars, unlike the kisses of a girl, Jeffy discovered the power and strength that a man wielded with his kiss.

And he loved it just as much as the soft taste of a woman.

As he kissed back, Jeffy felt true peace, being absolutely sure now that he truly was Bisexual, no more confusion, just desire.

His last rational words for a while were, "Bedroom."

They were all that was needed.

* * *

Sandi was at the Zon with Angel and Burnout, they hadn't hung out as much as they used too, and after what she had seen at home she had really needed some time with the girls.

And to talk to people she trusted, and boy did she talk.

Once Sandi finished telling them everything, Burnout handed Sandi a joint out of sympathy.

Angel however offered some words, they were, "Whoa… So is your Dad like, gay, or just crazy?"

Sandi shrugged her shoulders, "He was crazy long before this… Not sure about the gay thing, I didn't ask him a whole lot of questions."

Sandi then played with her drink and stared at the liquid as it slushed around the glass, "I didn't even catch the other guy's name."

Sandi then downed the shot and slammed the glass on the table, and said loudly, "God I love vodka!"

No one outside their group noticed, the roaring sounds of Fetal Metal as they played their set tended to make conversation difficult.

Sandi then glanced at the joint in her hands and simply caught Angel and Burnout's eyes and indicated first to the joint, then to an exit to alley.

They both nodded and followed her out to light up in relative privacy, what better way to cope with life than to kill brain cells, right?

Sandi had it lit up and puff puffed before passing it to Angel and decided to try and talk to her Dad in the morning.

"And I mean, like, really talk to him." Sandi reminded herself as firmly as she could, "it's clearly long overdue."

Sandi and Angel then had to poke Burnout so she'd pass the joint cus she tended to forget that part.

* * *

"Man am I stuffed," Rex moaned while rubbing his belly, he had packed away two steaks, plus a small side salad, and a few sodas, "But in a good way you know?"

Then he realized what he said and slapped his forehead and moaned, "Sorry, that came out wrong."

Mack just laughed it off and replied, "it's ok, I know what you meant by it."

Rex smiled sheepishly at that, and asked how Mack was feeling about his meal.

"Good man," Mack answered with a beaming smile, "I love Cindy's Steakhouse, I just don't have a chance to come here normally."

Rex was careful not to respond to that, he had gotten to know Mack enough to realize how sensitive he was to not having much coin to throw around.

"Then again," Rex thought to himself, "I had to save up a bit to make this happen."

When the server came, Rex took the check and simply told Mack, "Don't worry, it's one me."

Normally Mack would have fought that, since all his dates previously had been with Jodie or before her other girls, but he was on his first date with a guy and had _no idea_ what the etiquette was.

"Then again," Mack remembered again, "Nether does Rex."

They were both in new, foreign territory, trying to find their way as best they could.

Once the bill was settled, they both grabbed their coats, and Rex admired Mack in his nice tight dark green dress shirt, black slacks, black polished dress shoes, and his winning looks.

As they headed on out, Mack slipped his hand into Rex's, who took it without thinking about it.

"Heyyyy," a voice slurred from near then as they walked through the walkway to the exit, "Loook at the fairy fagooots."

Both of their heads snapped to look at the offender, it was just some random drunk frat boy trying to impress his friends.

Mack felt Rex's hand squeeze his tight, fury began to fill his eyes, to salvage the situation, Mack put considerable effort to pulling Rex away while whispering over and over, "That loser isn't worth the trouble."

It took a bit, but Mack managed to get Rex out of the steakhouse without a scene or a fight.

They both climbed into Rex's truck, but instead of leaving right away, Rex sat for a minute, shaking with wrath while hissing, "I should go back in there and kick his fucking ass!"

"That idiot isn't worth it." Mack said while putting an arm around his… boyfriend? He was hoping so.

Then Mack felt some inspiration and leaned in and whispered, "Besides, did you want to show me the 'shady spot' you found in the woods?"

That certainly got Rex's attention, he turned to look at Mack and replied with anger leaving his voice in favor of cautious optimism.

"Are you… sure?"

"Yes." Mack replied firmly.

Rex gave a war whoop, anger all but forgotten, the idiot frat boy no longer relevant, and started up his truck.

The spot Mack was talking about was a place that Rex had used a couple of times for clandestine one-night stands back when he was deep in the closet and trying to enjoy sex with girls.

"Now I'm going there with Mack, and I want this to really work." Rex thought to himself gladly, feeling better and better about this whole 'gay' thing by the day.

Then Mack almost ruined the moment by saying, nervously, "I just… I don't remember much from that night so if I'm not any good…"

"Don't sweat it," Rex replied with a sympathetic grin, "This is a learning thing for me too, let's just take it all one step at a time, right?"

"Right," Mack replied as Rex came within sight of the woods in record time, "But… I want this to be good for you."

He then blushed at his words, but wouldn't take them back if you paid him.

Rex felt genuinely touched and answered, "I… I think I love you for that."

Mack put his full gaze upon Rex and said, "Don't throw around the L word if you don't mean it."

"I mean it." Rex stated in a near whisper, his voice full of conviction.

Mack was quiet for a long moment before saying, "I… I think I love you too."

Rex pulled up into the shady spot in the woods near Lawndale and then leaned in and kissed Mack and whispered, "There's some bedding in the back of my truck…"

Mack's smile was all the answer he needed, the rush out of the truck and into the back would have impressed the Road Runner.

Not to mention how quickly the clothing came off, or how quickly the two of them got into it.

* * *

Helen Morgendorffer finally finished the last of the leftover paperwork from the day, hoping against hope itself that Ms. Li's messes were cleaned up once and for all.

"Now that we have the budget more or less figured out, and that 'slush fund' seized in the Cayman Islands, the school will be on an even footing financially." Helen thought to herself in her exhausted brain as she slipped into her night clothes and headed on up to the bedroom for some well-deserved sleep.

The downside to bringing order to the budget chaos though would be DeMartino increasing the pressure for an early renegotiation of the teacher's union contract with the school.

Which was something Helen wanted to do, but not until the next school year since it was draining enough getting the school up to speed.

As Helen slid in next to Jake, she was thankful that, for whatever his flaws, her boss Principal Gibson never called her at 3 AM to discuss the job.

"Sleep for me." Helen muttered, already halfway to dreamland.

Then she shot straight up wide awake, realizing she had forgotten to plan out the dinner with Daria's boyfriend for tomorrow.

Then she laid back down, deciding she'd do that in the morning.

She really needed sleep.

* * *

"So Rex what did you want to talk about?" Ethan Yeager asked as he, Josh, Mack, and Rex hung out near Rex's truck in the student parking lot before the start of yet another day at Lawndale.

"I'm going to do it tonight," Rex said very flatly, "I'm going to tell them and then… I'll probably need a place to crash."

"Ok, I think Rex just used up the bombshell quota for the day." was Josh's first rational thought on the matter.

Out loud however he managed to say something more relevant.

"Wow… You sure man?"

"Yeah," Rex replied at a level of flat that rivaled Daria's speaking voice, "I'm sure."

Rex then reached out and by instinct Mack pulled him closer to him and Rex said, "I asked Mack to be in the truck when I run out of the house, so I don't have to fiddle with the keys or anything."

"…You think it's going to be that bad?" Ethan asked cautiously, feeling way out of his depth in the matter.

"Yeah." Was Rex's flat reply to that.

"My Mom would be willing to hold him up for a couple nights," Mack replied while squeezing Rex tight against his chest, "But we really don't have the money to…" He couldn't finish that sentence, it was too degrading.

"My parents said they'd be willing to let you stay at our place Rex," Ethan said quietly, "Granted it will be a tight squeeze since we don't have a lot of space."

"That's no big," Rex said while pressed up against his boyfriend, "I'd be ok on a couch as long as it isn't with _them _anymore."

No one was sure what to say to that, but thankfully the sudden arrival of Kevin Thompson, running up to join them with a football in hand served as a mood shifter.

"Hey guys!" Kevin said in his usual happy-go-lucky dopey voice, "Wazup?"

"Not much."

"Nuthin."

"About to enter hell."

"It doesn't concern you." Josh added with a clear, 'take a hike' tone that Kevin completely missed.

Ethan just yawned and said, "And on this note we should probably head in."

He and Josh then departed, but Ethan did give Mack and Rex a sympathetic look and hoped that whatever the big idiot wanted wouldn't take long for them.

Because dealing with Kevin was like nails on a chalk board for anyone with working brain cells.

Rex had initially stiffed when he had first heard Kevin's voice, then reminded himself to relax, he and Mack weren't doing anything too out there and besides.

"People already kinda know anyway, so why hide it?" Rex asked himself even while clinging to Mack for physical and emotional support.

Mack held Rex even while blushing a bit but he did ask Kevin what he wanted in a rather regular voice.

"Oh I just wanted to thank you for the help in tutoring," Kevin replied happily, "I mean I know I'm not that smart, but those tricks of like, reading our textbooks really helped me, ya know?"

Rex noticed Mack was shaking a bit and realized he was holding back laughter.

But to his credit, Mack managed to say with only a hint of mirth, "Gee who'd have thought it?"

"I know bro!" Kevin exclaimed, and making Rex want to laugh in the process.

"But I did want to tell you guys something," Kevin added a bit more seriously, which was sufficiently unusual enough to warrant attention, "I mean even though you two haven't said anything, I've heard people talk and I just like, want you two to know from me, that if you guys are like, dating I'm cool with it."

"…Wow Kev," Mack replied in surprise, "I… I'm touched man."

"Thanks bro!" Kevin replied back to his usual drippy self, "But I do have to ask something, when we were hanging out and stuff did you… you know… Find me, attractive?"

Rex and Mack were both floored, and then they both laughed and Mack managed to wheeze out, "Nah… Your my friend… I never… I mean… Your my bro, not… you know…"

He couldn't say anymore, since it started to hurt his chest to talk.

"Cool!" Kevin exclaimed again and then said, "See ya!" and then ran off to get into the building at a reasonable time.

Sadly that day, both Mack and Rex were late to their first period classes, but you can't blame them for that, they had laughed so hard that their ribs hurt for the rest of the day.

* * *

"So about that idea I had…" Evan whispered gently into Tori's ear while nuzzling at the nape of her neck while she did her best to get her books switched out for her next class, but it was a bit distracting.

"Which one would that be?" Tori asked while pushing Evan away from her ear a bit.

He just leaned on a nearby locker and replied, "The idea I had for next year, instead of wasting my time doing the work…"

"Oh right," Tori replied quietly lest they be overheard, "Well I think it could work, but you'd need a brain you could trust to both do it right and keep their mouth shut."

"I kinda hinted about it at one but he wasn't interested." Evan replied and then had to emphasis the hint word when Tori glared at him.

"Well as long as you didn't outright say what you wanted you're in the clear if word reaches the wrong ears." Tori answered, having memorized the rules on punishment for cheating when Evan first broached the subject.

Evan sighed with relief and ran his fingers through his hair, making his messy brown hair even messier and better looking in the process.

"But like I said before," Tori added with a small grin, "You need to get a brain on your side."

"How?" Evan asked since he hadn't had much to do with brains, the closest he had come to dealing with a brain was Jane Lane during her brief stint on track.

And that hadn't ended very well.

"Sign up for summer tutoring." Tori suggested and nearly laughed when Evan blanched.

"I'm trying to _avoid _thinking, not do more of it!" Evan said barely keeping a snap out of his voice.

Tori just glared back and replied, "If you did any thinking you'd realize that even if you got a brain to do the work for you, you still have to do the tests and they can't help you there pal!"

"…Oh crap!" Evan said as he realized the horror of the situation.

God did he miss the days when Ms. Li was in charge and he could just do what he was good at and not have to do all this thinking dammit!

"Fine!" Evan said in defeat, "A tutor it is."

While she cooed some words of encouragement, inside Tori couldn't help but enjoy knocking down Mr. Arrogant down a bit.

"Your cuter when you're not so full of yourself," Tori thought at her current boyfriend, "Besides maybe tutoring over the summer will help you figure out how to do all of it yourself, it will be cheaper."

This made Tori think about her own deep dark secret, but she pushed that aside since only she and the teachers knew about it.

And she planned to keep it that way, at least until graduation and she was outside the social hierarchy of High School.

* * *

Jeffy did his best to follow the Algebra stuff that Cindy was putting up on the board, but a lot of it was just gibberish to him.

He wished that the GSA was able to hold at least one more meeting before the end of the year, but with most of it's leadership doing the tutoring thing they weren't able to do it.

"Well the meetings we had before this crap started were fun," Jeffy thought to himself as he drifted away from the class, "And with everything that's happened it would be nice to talk to someone about all this."

Not that Jeffy was complaining about his new life with Monique, but a comment Jesse had made the morning after his first threeway had given him some pause.

"Are things moving too fast?" Jeffy thought once more, the second guessing was giving him a headache.

He then tried to focus back on the math, but it was a vain fight.

Math was Jeffy's worst subject, then again it was most people's worst subject.

"Whoever created this crap was a monster." Jeffy thought to himself in disgust, hell half of what was in the damn problem wasn't even numbers, they were letters.

What did English have to do with Math?

* * *

Evan couldn't resist a brief chuckle after the small nerdy kid in the dumb shirt had blanched when he had called out to him after lingering near the door after his own tutoring had ended at Ethan's class.

"Your Ed right?" Evan asked to open the talk.

"Yea… Yeah." Ed 'the Head' croaked nervously while he tried to eyeball escape routes, "What do you want?"

Evan just grinned and said he wanted to sign up for the summer tutoring program.

"Su…Sure!" Ed managed to say while shaking like a leaf, "Just don't hurt me!"

"Can't hurt the meal ticket." Evan thought to himself with amusement, even though he had never laid a finger on the kid before.

Aloud however Evan reassured the nerd that he was here for peaceful reasons and was signed up after Ed found the right papers.

Though he couldn't resist a snicker after the kid all but _ran _to get away after all was said and done.

If he had wanted to, he could have easily chased him down and done whatever, but that wasn't him.

"Besides," Evan thought with contempt, "He's too scrawny, it wouldn't be a fair fight."

* * *

After yet another day of rediscovering just how childish teenagers could be, and handing out a couple detentions to the last pair of girls who had been fighting over a guy, Helen Morgendorffer began her usual drive home, and then mid-way there realized to her horror what she had forgotten to do.

"I FORGOT TO GET THE DINNER READY!" She screamed in terror and nearly stopped in the middle of the highway and barely kept herself from creating a massive car wreck on the road.

After she got back on track and unashamedly ignored the cries and screams of other drivers behind her, pulled out her cellphone and informed Jake that they would be going out to eat that night.

"I'll just pass this off to Tom and Daria as a way to truly relax." Helen thought to herself summing as much cheer as she could.

Besides she had always wanted to try that restaurant that Quinn always went to on dates, Chez Pierre.

"It sounds so romantic." Helen thought to herself with a flutter in her heart, and then felt a stab of fear at how Tom and Daria might react to that sort of romance.

"Don't worry about it," Helen reminded herself firmly while stomping on the gas, "You'll be there to make sure that no shenanigans occur."

It still wasn't a comforting thought.

* * *

"Go go go go go!" Rex screamed while running out of his house and breakneck speed and nearly ramming into the passenger side of his truck, while inside his house incoherent drunken roars could be heard.

Mack managed to get the door open and Rex scrambled in just as the sound of a shotgun going off boomed in the house.

"GO!" Rex screamed in terror while Mack, not needing to be told slammed on the gas and hauled ass away from the Attor's residence, just as Rex's fat, drunken Dad came out with that shotgun and managed to get a hit on the truck's flatbed door.

"FUCK!" Rex and Mack screamed even as they kept speeding at now 90 mph in town.

After they made it for a couple of blocks, Mack pulled over and then his body decided that _now _was a good time to go into total shock.

Rex's brain was going at a million miles an hour, he kept reminding himself that his stuff was safe in the truck bed, down low, and that he needed to find a phone, get to the Yeagers… _Oh god they actually tried to kill him!_

After just sitting next to each other quietly in the truck, even with bullet holes smoking on the back, Rex suggested, very faintly that he should drive the rest of the way.

Mack didn't put up a fight and moved like a mechanical mechanism to get out of the truck and went around the front, not wanting to face what had happened to the back, and climbed into the passenger side.

Rex made good time getting to Ethan's.

Then once he was let in by Ethan's Mom and told her what happened with a simple, "My dad tried to kill me."

She called the cops.

Then all hell broke loose.

* * *

"So what happened to dinner at your guy's place?" Tom teased Daria with Quinn squeezed in between them and clearly not happy about it.

That last had been at Helen's 'suggestion' to her younger daughter with a threat of cutting her curfew down to 9 at night.

"They forgot to cook the dinner." Daria answered flatly while her parents were in the front of the lexus, heading their merry way to Chez Pierre.

Tom just grinned at that and replied, "Well at least I'll be spared what you claim is your Dad's infamous cooking."

"True," Daria replied as a grin formed on her lips, "But you'll be eating Faux French food instead, with my family."

"Point taken." Tom conceded and wished that Quinn wasn't in the way so he could give Daria a comforting hug or something.

Meanwhile in the front, Helen Morgendorffer was very thankful that Quinn was there to prevent hugs, or somethings, or whatevers.

* * *

Sandi and her two brothers had her Dad trapped in the kitchen, just when he had sat down with a bucket of ice cream, Sam and Chris had gone in first and stood like sentinels to prevent him fleeing.

Then Sandi walked in with a look of ferocious determination that reminded Tom Griffin of his dead wife Linda.

"Dad," Sandi said grimly, "We need to talk."

He sighed in defeat and replied, "I know."

He then leaned in the chair a bit and then began to tell an edited version of how he had met Wind Lane, and Sandi nearly blanched when she recognized the last name.

"My Dad is sleeping with one of Jane Lane's relatives?!" she thought to herself in instinctive terror left over from her Fashion Club days.

Tom left out the parts about Ms. Barch, and Mr. O'Neill, not sure how his kids would take it, and he left out the bits about the sex, figuring they could guess at that if they wanted to.

They didn't want too.

But he did conclude with, "I know I've made mistakes, big ones, but Wind… We just clicked and I don't know if it makes me gay, bi, or whatever, right now he makes me happy and I hope you guys can understand that."

No one was sure what to say after that for a long time, until Sandi managed a very quiet, "I'm not sure I understand it right now, but I'll, like, try."

Tom Griffin's relief was palpable and then he did something he hadn't done since Sandi was a child and before Linda had begun 'coaching' her.

He gave her a big hug and then motioned for Sam and Chris to join him, and since no one was around to see it and embarrass them, they joined them.

* * *

Dinner at Chez Pierre was an awkward experience for everyone involved, except for Tom and Daria who found the means to alleviate their own trepidation at the experience.

First they snarked to each other about the host's extremely cheesy faux 'French' accent, then one look at the menus set off a serious case of the giggles since the 'authentic French' with helpful English translation underneath was pathetically misspelled.

While enjoying the Morgendorffer parents and Quinn's discomfort, Tom and Daria helped each other correct the menus with pens they got from their server, who couldn't help but laugh at their antics, since he was majoring in French Literature at Lawndale State and had been fighting in vain for months to get corrected menus for the restaurant.

Once the food _was _ordered, Tom and Daria exchanged smiles when Quinn made several mispronunciations of the items she ordered, it didn't help that she said them with an experienced air of one who knew what she was doing.

However these joyful interludes were interrupted by that pesky need to _talk _to each other, and Jake Morgendorffer got the ball rolling with a bad taste joke about insider trading at Grace, Sloane and Page.

That got cricket chirps, and then Jake mumbled a very half-baked apology before following his instincts and re-embraced the smokescreen of cluelessness that had served him so well in the past.

Helen however tried to make the conversation light, and yet interrogate Tom at the same time, giving everyone whiplash in the process.

Thankfully, she had the good grace to commit the faux pas of having her cellphone on her person, and with a full charge.

"My apologies Tom," Helen said with some embarrassment, "I have to take this."

"It's like she's working for Eric all over again." Daria commented with a slight twinge of a smile, which made Tom and Quinn both give nervous laughs.

It quickly became apparent that the conversation wasn't work related when the first words out of Helen's mouth was, "Willow! What's wrong you sound upset… WHAT?! REX'S PARENTS TRIED TO KILL HIM?!"

The entire restaurant was now staring at their table of five, but for once no one there felt any humiliation, hearing about an attempted murder tended to be a showstopper.

Everyone got to hear snippets about the police, being caught in lies, CPS, and then Helen roared in full attack mode, "I'M ON MY WAY!"

"Check please?" Jake squeaked into the deafening silence that followed this, even as Helen was getting up and putting on her coat at warp speed.

Her new role as an educational administrator was augmented by the hardboiled lawyer she had worked very hard in becoming over the years.

And that combination would serve her well, anyone that got her way… Not so much.

* * *

Rex sat on the Yeager's couch with Ethan and Mack on either side of him, Rex held his boyfriend's hand with a fierce grip, his face a twisted mask of confusion, pain, and exhaustion.

Mack and Rex had both given their statements to the police officers who had come to the Yeager's residence after Willow called them.

From what they had gleaned, the neighbors had called the police on Rex's parents after the discharge of the shotgun, and as soon as they had gotten there, Rex's dad had done the stupid thing and tried to give them crap.

Which ended when he got the business end of a baton to the face and lost two teeth in the process, in self-defense on the officer's part was the claim there.

Then after getting Mr. and Mrs. Attor to talk, they were caught in about five lies, and that was before they were notified of where the son was and what the scoop really was, the bullet holes on the back of the kid's truck were pretty solid evidence.

Ned and Betty Attor were then formally arrested for Attempted Murder, Child Abuse, Child Endangerment, and the illegal discharge of a firearm in a residential district, the last since they had the pair dead nuts on getting it to stick.

Back at the Yeager's the woman from Child Protective Services, a Ms. Pennyfeather proved to be a serious problem.

Since she took one look at the Yeager's home and declared them unfit to serve as legal guardians for Rex after they made the offer.

"I don't have anywhere else to go." Rex offered up weakly, knowing full well that his extended family that was still alive and not in jail wouldn't have anything to do with him now.

Willow excused herself for a moment and had Coyote keep the harridan busy and made a phone call, then came back with a demeanor that was completely alien to everyone who had ever known her.

Except Coyote, who had known her long before she had become Willow Yeager.

"Just to make things perfectly clear," Willow said in a no longer willowy voice, but something you could cut diamonds on, "I have contact my dear old friend Helen Morgendorffer to serve as my legal counsel in this matter."

Ms. Pennyfeather sucked in a fearful breath before remembering the recent news and sniffed, "My dear, Helen Morgendorffer is the Vice Principal of the local high school, she isn't a lawyer anymore."

"She still has a valid license to practice." Willow replied coldly and took pleasure in Pennyfeather's second wave of fear.

It didn't take long for Helen to arrive, Jake's legendary scary speed demon driving took care of that, and nearly caused Tom's hair to turn white.

Helen mentally spat on her palms and went to work on Ms. Pennyfeather, and secured temporary custody of Rex for the Yeager's in ten minutes.

Once that old bat was out the door, Willow sat down in a chair looking exhausted and simply said, "Thank you Helen."

"No problem Willow," she replied sweetly, "The CPS in this state is absolutely useless, the foster care system even worse, I know that Rex will be in good hands here."

At that, Rex looked up spoke for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Thank you Mrs. Morgendorffer."

"Again it was no trouble," Helen answered kindly, "And considering everything, if you'd like to take tomorrow off then that's ok, I'll have it excused."

Rex thanked her again for it, then beamed when she said the same to Mack and then asked if anyone had contacted his mother about all this.

"Oh crap!" Mack said in shock before making a beeline for the phone.

Rex in the meanwhile asked if he could go outside for a minute for air, and when he got an affirmative got up headed on out the back, with the other kids in tow.

In the Yeager's backyard, everyone sat down on the old picnic table, glad that the drama was over for the moment.

Rex broke the silence that had followed with a simple question, "Where am I going to sleep tonight?"

Ethan sighed sadly at that one and replied, "The only spare room we've got is my Dad's home office, but he doesn't use it much so I guess we can move stuff out, but at least for tonight."

"Couch then," Rex finished for him, "That's ok, at least it's something."

Tom, Daria, and Quinn in the meanwhile had witnessed the entire drama and had been forced to do some hard thinking of their own.

However it was Quinn who first broke ranks and threw her hat in the ring by saying, "I think it would be a good idea if we, you know, didn't talk about this at school."

Everyone stared at her in shock and Quinn replied with, "What?"

"…That's actually a good idea Quinn," Ethan answered for the group, "People will figure it out eventually but a delay will help."

"Thanks." Quinn replied with sincerity, having learned her lesson on this score a long time ago.

Ethan then glanced at Rex and asked if he wanted something to eat or drink, then had to tell Rex that a beer would be a bad idea at the moment.

"Depressants are the last thing you need right now man."

Rex just grunted, really wanting a way to just forget all this crap, if but for a little while.

The back sliding glass door then opened and Mack stepped out and shut it behind him and said as he came up to them, "My Mom is coming to pick me up, I… I wish I could stay."

"It's ok Mack," Rex replied while Mack came over to give him a goodbye hug, "You two need each other now and I'd just get in the way… I always do."

"Rex," Mack said firmly while looking deep into Rex's chocolate colored eyes, "Don't talk like that, ever, because you're worth the world to me."

Rex nearly broke down into tears at that and just clung to Mack even more fiercely, the others took this as a cue to give them some privacy and headed back inside as quietly as they could.

* * *

"You don't really appreciate what you have until you get a taste of how much worse it could be." Daria whispered quietly to Tom once they were back in the Yeager's eye-popping house.

"True," Tom replied just as quietly, "I thought it was hell dealing with the endless snipping war between me and Elsie."

"Quinn could give your sister a run for her money." Daria retorted with the first hint of amusement since this madness was dumped into their laps.

"Probably from the looks of it," Tom answered as he glanced at Quinn, who was talking to Ethan, "And from the looks of it she's getting cozy with Ethan."

Daria just gritted her teeth, hoping to God that the twit wasn't about to do or say something stupid.

* * *

"Ethan," Quinn said softly as she approached him gingerly, "If you need anything from me or the other Style Girls tomorrow, just ask."

"Thanks," Ethan answered carefully, "I appreciate the gesture."

In fact he had no idea how a group of fashion obsessed gossips could be useful under the circumstances, but at least she was trying.

"I know I screwed up royal way back when," Quinn blurted out, "I didn't apologize for it correctly either, and I am truly, deeply sorry for what I did, and this time around I'm not going to screw things up dammit!"

That dammit created a brief period of quiet that was then broken by a fit of silent laugher between the two of them.

It took a couple of minutes to recompose themselves, and when they did Ethan replied, "I needed that laugh, thanks Quinn."

"Anytime Ethan." she replied with the first sincere smile she had born on her face all night, and then they heard her mother call out her daughters names.

It was time to go.

"Bye Ethan." Quinn said with a small amount of sadness in her voice, and yet tinged with a tiny bit of joy at having said her peace at last.

"Goodbye Quinn," Ethan replied with the first smile he had given her since she had accidently outed him, "I… I'll see you at school, I guess."

"Yeah." Quinn said lamely before she felt the instinctive pull of her mother at her heartstrings and had to walk away.

Ethan then headed over to Daria and Tom and said his goodbyes and asked Tom what he would tell his parents.

"Not sure yet," he replied quietly, "I'll have to think about it."

"Think fast cousin," Ethan said flatly, "I have a feeling that they probably have a garbled idea of what happened."

"What makes you think that?" Tom asked genuinely curious.

"This is Lawndale." Daria and Ethan both replied, enjoying the simple pleasures of snark once more.

"Oh yeah."

* * *

Much later that night, as Rex curled up under borrowed blankets and pillows on the Yeager's couch, and let the sound of their dog's snoring lull him into dreamland, he thought over something Ethan's mom had told him during the talk they had had once things had been more settled.

"Ethan has told me a lot about you," Willow had said much more flatly than her normal speaking voice, "And he said that you've come a long away from being a bully, but if you lay one finger on my son in violence you are out the door."

"Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am I do." Rex had replied shamefaced at the way he had used to be.

"Good," Willow had replied a bit more airily before kissing her middle and index fingers, making a peace sign with them, then planting them on his forehead, "Now you've had a long night, so get some sleep and we'll… deal with everything one step at a time."

"You're among friends here Rex, neither myself, my husband, or my son will ever hurt you."

Rex gave her his thanks with both words and a small, brief, polite hug, which Willow returned with gusto.

"Friends," Rex muttered in his sleep, "Friends…"

With friends at his side like these, a small part of the damaged ruin that Rex had to call a soul began to feel just a tiny bit better.

The healing process from years of psychological harm could begin, since it had now been given a chance.

* * *

It was another morning at Monique's, and Jeffy and his leading lady had just had OJ and toast but sadly weren't able to enjoy the rest of the morning since they were looking over the bills.

"Bills suck." Jeffy said philosophically while licking grape jelly off his fingers.

"Yup." Monique replied flatly while crunching the numbers, it was tight but still manageable.

Jeffy sighed at all the math involved, but even he could figure out that even though they had enough to get by, there wasn't much left over.

"With summer rolling around," Jeffy began with some trepidation but confidence came as he got his stride, "The cash my parents send helps but… I mean when I'm in school that's one thing but with these months off… I… I think I'll get a summer job to help cover the expenses."

"I thought you wanted to learn to ride motorcycles with your friends." Monique replied, trying to keep from making him feel like she was forcing him to do this.

"Yeah but it's a weekend class thing," Jeffy answered having memorized the pamphlet, "So people who work for a living don't have to choose between that and their job."

Jeffy then finished his orange juice and continued, "I know some places at the mall that always look for temporary help in the summer, I work during the day, leaving the nights open to be a roadie."

Jeffy then gave a sexy grin and added, "Or your personal flyboy, whatever floats the boat."

Monique laughed at that and answered, "Sounds good, but we'd better get you to school Jeffy or else you'll be late."

Jeffy sighed but did what he was told, there'd be plenty of time to 'float the boat' later, though he couldn't help but worry again about things moving too fast.

But he pushed it aside to deal with immediate concerns.

* * *

"So Rex and Mack got the day off," Jane spoke up first once Ethan and Daria finished telling her and Josh the story, "If it wasn't for the circumstances I'd envy them."

"Yeah." Ethan replied with exhaustion, it had been a long night, and he had had to give Rex some prior warning about his parents early morning habits, like doing upside down yoga propped up on a living room wall.

He then added, "But Dad took the day off too, so he could keep Rex and Mack company, and make Mack's mom feel better if there was a 'chaperone'."

Everyone laughed at that and Jane asked, "So how much chaperoning is he going to do?"

"Other than taking Rex back to his parents place to collect his stuff, not much." Ethan said flatly, effectively killing the conversation.

Josh put an arm around his boyfriend as they approached Lawndale High and said a very rare prayer, asking whatever God that was out there to give them strength to face the trials ahead.

* * *

Other than telling Jane and Josh as a matter of course, Ethan and Daria held to their word and kept their mouths shut.

However a garbled version of the story had already reached the student body, and while some of the details had been exaggerated a bit, like the one freshman girl Ethan had overheard assuring another that Rex was in the hospital with gunshot wounds.

The gist had certainly been conveyed, and sadly everyone had _somehow_ found out that it was Ethan's family that had taken Rex in.

Needless to say he was bombarded with questions and requests to spill the beans, until his friends and oddly enough Quinn's Style Girls Club put their foots down on them all, hard.

However during lunch Ethan's table gained an unexpected addition in the form of Sandi who wanted to talk to Jane.

"Apparently she found out about her Dad and Wind." Daria said flatly to Ethan who just smiled and said nothing.

The conversation between Sandi and Jane went surprisingly well, after the initial reluctance to talk about the situation started to melt away.

"I mean, like, if it makes them happy, then who are we to judge?" Sandi asked at one point while twirling a finger through her newly tweaked Pink hair that now had white streaks.

"I'm impressed Sandi." Jane had answered plainly, her fork suspended in midair.

"Thanks Jayne," she had replied with a small smile, "I know I, like, have a reputation as a bitch, but… A lot's changed."

"Yes it has," Ethan said from nowhere, "And you should be proud of who you are now Sandi, let the past just… Be the past."

The thank you that came from Sandi at those words were the most heartfelt words she had said to anyone in a long time.

The last week of school went by in the blur, tutoring ended a few days before finals, Rex and Mack came back to school, the snickering and bad taste jokes dead in the water after what had happened to them.

Daria and Tom found the time, amidst preparations for their finals, to see each other for pizza, snark, and to put Tom's Jaguar too good use for making out.

Rex found the distraction of actual studying for finals a good way not to think about what had happened, at least for a little while, and doing said studying with Mack, Ethan, and Josh helped break the ice.

Then finals hit the school like a small stink bomb.

* * *

Jodie Landon finished her punch as she gazed at the partying throng, she had talked her parents into hosting a bash to celebrate the end of the school year.

"And I only had to mention that some of the other kids were planning a completely unsupervised party at the ravine, complete with booze and drugs to get them to think a more supervised affair was in order." Jodie thought to herself in awe at her own cleverness.

Since no such party had been in the works.

Then Mack approached Jodie, with Rex who then got one look at Jodie's face and excuse himself for some punch.

"Hey Jodie."

"Yo."

"So how many people have thanked you for the party?"

"I didn't bother keeping count," Jodie answered, "I figured I'd lose count anyways, so why bother?"

"True."

"What about you Mack?" she asked sweetly, "How many people thanked you for doing the tutoring thing?"

"Everyone I worked with," Mack answered with an exhausted sigh, "Even Kevin apparently scraped enough passes to get out of his classes."

"Kevin passed?!" Jodie asked incredulously.

"Yep," Mack replied with a mixture of shock and pride, "I saw the report card and everything; he got C minuses, plain Cs, and an A in Phys Ed."

The last grade was pretty much a given for anyone that did sports at LHS.

"I heard that Joey and Robert both got off Academic Probation." Jodie said to change up the topic a bit, "It means you're not the only smart Football player at Lawndale."

Mack just laughed at that and replied, "Yeah, and Rex came pretty close but he didn't quite make it in a couple classes, so he'll have to wait till next year to get off of the big AP."

Rex then approached the pair of them with three full cups of punch balanced in his arms, Mack and Jodie took a cup each and toasted each other for surviving yet another year of High School.

Rex just grinned at the two of them and thought to himself, "They make better friends than they ever did a couple."

And that wasn't just because he was now dating Mack instead of Jodie, they really did seem better off this way.

* * *

In a quiet, shady area just off the property line, Sandi was sitting with Stephen Pierson-Wells II on the grass, and gathered up the courage to ask him.

"So we've been, like, dating for a while but…" she started to struggle with the words.

Steve had a feeling of what she wanted to ask, so he gambled and said, "But neither one of us had the guts to ask if we wanted to be serious or just have fun."

"…Yeah."

"Sandi," He replied gently, "If we don't go for broke and be serious about this, then what was the point?"

Sandi felt hope flutter in her belly and she tentatively said, "So… Serious, right?"

The kiss Steve planted upon her beautiful dewy lips was answer enough, he loved her.

* * *

Ethan, Josh, Daria, and Tom had claimed a small table for themselves, off and away from the dancing, mingling, and otherwise celebratory crowd to enjoy themselves in their own way.

"So where's Elsie?" Ethan asked out of curiosity.

"She said she had to go to the bathroom." Tom answered since he had told them that he would be bringing his sister to the event.

"More than likely she just needed a few minutes to steel herself to meet so many 'lower class types'." Tom thought to himself, but bit his tongue on that for the sake of others.

"So what are you going to be doing this summer?" Tom asked of his cousin and his significant other.

"Not sure yet," Ethan replied, "I don't do the whole, 'summer activity' thing, so I usually just chill."

Josh smiled at that and said, "Well I did guilt trip my mom out of some cash when she had one of her 'parental bonding' kicks, so I was hoping to take you and some of our friends to a concert of some sort."

"Cool!" Ethan breathed before having to ask "Um… What concert exactly?"

"Well there's several events," Josh replied, "I'll ask Trent which ones are the best to go too."

"Avoid Alternapalooza at all costs." Daria said from nowhere, causing Josh to laugh and Ethan and Tom to wear twin masks of confusion.

"I'll explain later." Josh answered for them, Trent had told him the story of the ill-fated attempt road trip the summer before.

Then while Tom explained about having to do a summer internship at his father's company, Daria realized something.

She had completely forgotten about getting something to do during the summer to avoid having her parents make the choice for her.

"Oh crap." She thought while getting that sinking feeling in her stomach.

She wouldn't have much time before her Mom realized that summer was upon them, she'd have to improvise, quick.

* * *

Elsie Sloane stepped out onto the Landon's patio, feeling very out of sorts among the kids from the local high school.

She held a hand up to shield her eyes from the light of the setting sun, trying to find Tom and Ethan in the crowd.

Elsie wished for the hundredth time that she hadn't needed to pee so badly, but nature called and there was nothing else for it.

She thought she saw a flash of grey drab that could only mean one thing.

"Tom." She breathed quietly and began to scurry down the steps towards where she thought the blur had been.

She moved so quickly that one of the Lawndale kids, turning to head up the stairs to get a refill of punch didn't have a chance to stop in time.

"Ow!"

"Ouch!"

"I am so sorry," Elsie said after the intitial shock and pain wore off after running into the kid, "I can't believe I did that."

"It's ok," Jamie White replied with the remnants of his punch on his shirt, but he hadn't noticed that yet, he now only had eyes for the vision of loveliness in front of him, "Uh… What's your name? Cus I don't think I've seen you before."

Elsie laughed at that and replied, "I'm Elsie, Elsie Sloane."

"Cool." Jamie replied with dreamy eyes, "I'm Jamie White, but you can just call me Jamie."

Then he asked if she wanted a drink.

"Sure," Elsie replied, "Though I did bump into you so maybe I should be getting you one instead."

Jamie brushed that off, "Nah it's ok Elsie, it's my pleasure."

The smile that Elsie Sloane gave him at that made Jamie's heart beat faster and faster and the only rational thought in his head now was this.

"She's sooo beautiful."

**THE END**


	9. Chapter 9: Soaking Up Summer

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 9 Soaking Up Summer**

"Aren't you worried about drug tests?" Ethan asked with a slur as one of his less potent joints began to kick in.

"Nah man," Rex replied with a drawl as he took the joint from Ethan while lounging on the Yeager's living room couch, "The new coach fucks with the tests so they come out clean."

"Ah," Ethan exhaled along with some smoke, "Gibson did that too, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Heh," Ethan laughed, "They'd better be careful cus I dunno if Mrs. Morgendorffer would take kindly to all that."

Rex laughed at that and replied after taking another hit, "That's why we don't narc… You won't right?"

Ethan laughed as Rex passed him the joint back, "Dude, does it look like I'd narc about stuff like that?"

"…Yeah your right." Rex said after thinking it through as best he could, which to his credit was impressive considering that he was now 'under the influence' and if he was driving would probably get a DUI.

Then the doorbell rang.

"That had better be the boyfriends," Ethan said while getting up off the floor where he had been sitting propped up against the adjacent loveseat.

"Yeah…" Rex drawled before realizing that Ethan still had the joint and would have to wait a minute or two before getting another hit.

"Bummer." Rex thought to himself as Ethan opened the door.

* * *

"I have to admit," Ethan said as he cracked open a nice ice cold brew, "I never saw you as a drinker Mack."

Mack Mackenzie just grinned like the cat that ate the canary and answered, "I seem to have all kinds of secrets E, some I don't even know I have myself."

That made Mack, Ethan, and Rex snicker, and Josh struggled not to while restringing his guitar but had to give up after a few seconds of holding it in.

But once they were over their laughing fits, Josh finished his work and began to play a few notes to get a feel and get it in tune.

Mack then drank some of his beer and said, "So what are you guys planning to do this summer?"

Ethan just grinned and said, "Whatever we want man."

Rex then asked, "I thought you and Josh were going to some rock show thing, right?"

"Yup," Ethan replied while pulling out another joint from his pocket, "They're doing a big festival in Heavensport called the 'Rock a Phial Show' with a bunch of supposed up and comers."

Josh stopped getting his guitar in tune long enough to dig a brochure from the pile of papers on the coffee table and tossed it to Mack.

He then looked at it and went, "Uh… I don't think that's how you use the word 'Phial'."

"Um, yeah," Josh replied while strumming a G note, "But I guess it makes it more rock n' roll, or something."

"Proper English is for squares." Ethan snarked as he lit up the joint and took a hit before passing it to Mack.

"Hey he trusts you." Josh commented with pride, knowing that Ethan only offered to people he counted as 'trustworthy'.

"Uh…" Mack said with nervousness, "I've never done this before…"

"It's just puff, puff, pass." Rex replied with confidence before sucking down the last of his beer.

"…Fuck it," Mack finally went after a moment's pause, "I only live once."

He put the joint to his lips, inhaled, and immediately began choking on the smoke.

"It's ok," Ethan said with a fit of the giggles, "We're just breaking in your virgin lungs."

Now it was Rex's turn to grin like a bird eating cat as he opened up another beer and thought about his own plans for the summer.

Which so far consisted of just having as much fun as he could, and to avoid thinking about the legal train wreck that he and Mack were facing at the end of the summer with their respective parental units went up on trial.

Granted they would probably be overshadowed by the Barch thing, but even if she did avoid her 'big celebrity trial' with an insanity defense, things would still be messy.

To wash the bad taste out of his mouth, Rex began chugging that beer and only stopped to take a hit from E's killer weed.

It was better than thinking about what lay ahead.

* * *

"I can't bu-lieve that my parents are making me do this Quinn!" Brooke whined to the head of the Style Girls Club over the phone.

"I know," Quinn replied sincerely on her end the line in her room while watching her nails dry, "A summer job is just so… ugh!"

"It's like they hate me or something." Brooke said while holding her new work uniform in her hands, the vile thing was so… unfashionable!

"Um, by the by where are you working anyway?" Quinn asked once she realized that she had forgotten to ask that question.

"Payday."

"What day?"

"You know, that tacky warehouse store that just opened up," Brooke explained while holding up the vest with her free hand like it was a viper, "My dad knows the manager and he agreed to give me a summer job, and only now are they telling me about this!"

"Ugh!" Quinn agreed with sympathy, "It's like, the worst thing they could have done to you."

"I know," Brooke said with a dejected sigh, "And the pay isn't that good either, but I guess it might help with my shopping budget for, like, back to school stuff."

"Hmm…" Quinn mused as wheels now began to turn in her head, "True, but that vest you described… ugh!"

Both girls shuddered in horror at what poor Brooke would be enduring this summer.

* * *

"So Daria," Jane said while working on her latest painting, which consisted of Mr. DeMartino half transformed as a werewolf and holding Ms. Li's heart in his hands, her corpse at his clawed feet, "Why'd you seem so urgent on the phone."

Daria was lying on Jane's bed staring up at the ceiling and replied, "Tom and I were talking and… The sex thing came up."

"Again?" Jane replied as she applied more red to the heart, "Well to be fair Morgendorffer, when I compare the polite way Tom's asked about it to how some of the guys that were interested in _me _went about it… Count yourself lucky."

"I guess." Daria said flatly while playing with her skirt a bit but otherwise not really moving much.

Jane then wondered if it was just being slightly pressured on the sex topic that was bothering her friend or if it was something else and asked as much.

"Well…" Daria began before she struggled to find the right words, "It's just… How do you know?"

"Know what?" Jane asked with a small bit of confusion, not having much to go on.

"How do you know if you're ready?"

"Hmm…" Jane mused while looking at her painting for a minute, "Well I have to admit on this subject I'm not much use, I'm still a virgin myself, remember?"

"True," Daria replied, "But I don't really have anyone to talk to about this besides you."

"What about Ethan or Josh?" Jane asked and then realized why that was a bad idea, and Daria confirmed it.

"No offence but, they're guys," Daria replied, "And things are different for guys and girls on the sex thing, right?"

"You've got a point Morgendorffer, and it's not like you could talk to Brittany about this."

"Oh god!" Daria exclaimed, "Let's not even go there."

"Yeah bad joke," Jane said apologetically, "Look listen just let me think about it for a minute and we can come up with _someone_ who we can talk to that isn't a parent or a guy."

Daria then rolled over in the bed and got a good look at the painting and said, "Sounds good, but in the meanwhile I have to ask one more thing."

"What?"

"Why have DeMartino kill Li? Why not Kevin?"

"Dammit!" Jane said in anger at herself, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"I say save it for when you do DeMartino as a bloodsucking vampire."

"I like the way you think Daria."

"I try."

* * *

Elsie Sloane kept a polite smile on her face as Jamie showed her around his house, all the while thinking to herself, "I thought the Landon's were middle class, but at least it's not the Yeager's day-glow thing."

Elsie then felt very thankful that Ethan at least had enough sense to avoid making his living space look like something that India threw up all over.

Then as Jamie showed her his bedroom, and had the courtesy to leave the door open, she noticed something lying on the bed.

"Hey what's this?" she asked as she picked up a black full-face helmet and looked at it closely.

"Oh I'm taking riding lessons for the next couple weekends." Jamie answered with a slight swagger and a hint of bragging.

"Riding…" Elsie began to muse aloud before it clicked, "Oh motorcycles right?"

"Yup."

Elsie then thought of all the disparaging things that her parents and her extended family had said about the subject of motorcycles, motorcycle riders, and pretty much anything associated with such 'low brow' behavior.

She turned to look at Jamie with the helmet in hand with a warm dark smile fresh on her face and said, "Can I get in on that?"

"Yes!" Jamie exclaimed happily and then added; "I have a card here somewhere…" he then rushed up to his dresser drawer and began to shuffle a pile of papers he had in a small bin on top of it.

All the while Elsie was already thinking about how much fun it was going to be to really piss of her parents and family by doing this.

"Even if I completely suck at this at least I'll have the satisfaction of shocking the crap out of everyone at the Cove this July." Elsie thought to herself with bemusement.

It would help her pass the time in that hellhole.

* * *

Evan Larson brushed some of his messy brown hair out of his face and look at the small note from the tutoring program, informing him of who the tutor would be.

"Ed Parker…" Evan said to himself while trying to put the name to a face, "…Hey isn't he that kid who wears that 'Head' shirt?"

Evan then walked from the island in his kitchen with his cup in hand to the fridge and poured himself some more orange juice, it was one of Evan's favorites.

He then remembered that it was that Ed kid that had signed him up for the program and Evan began to think about how to get on his good side.

"Well he seemed real scared, like a cat," Evan said to himself as he walked back to the island and sat down on a built in stool, "I'll have to try not to intimidate him too much, not that it took a whole lot for that to happen."

He then snickered to himself, he hadn't even been trying to scare the kid but when Evan had first talked to him it seemed like Ed had wanted to bolt as fast as he could.

Not that Evan couldn't have chased him down, Track Star vrs. Nerd was a no-brainer contest.

"Even those idiot Style Girls could figure that one out." Evan thought with contempt and gave an exception for Tori and Rene, whom he knew to be sharp cookies.

The others were clearly morons, and coming from Evan that wasn't a compliment.

"Just stick to the plan man," Evan thought while drinking his OJ and wondering if he could squeeze in a run before going out to do errands, "Get the nerd on your side, make him think we're buds, and pay him to do the work for me once we're back in school."

"This is gonna be sweet!" Evan spoke aloud once he finished the glass.

Life was good and was going to get better.

* * *

Rex Attor stared at the latest weirdo vegan concoction that his Foster-mother had cooked and manfully swallowed a bite, telling his taste buds to ignore the fact that it was the color of puke green and realized that it actually wasn't half-bad.

"But I'd rather have a steak." Rex thought to himself with an internal laugh.

The meat & potatoes loving football player was having a hard time adjusting to the Yeager's idea of culinary consumption.

"If it wasn't for Coyote and Ethan sneaking in bacon late at night I'd have gone nuts." Rex continued in his mental dialogue as he ate… Whatever was on his plate, the name was weird and foreign and made his head hurt thinking about it.

But other than the food he didn't really mind living here all that much, his eyes had adjusted to all the psychedelic colors long ago, there wasn't any constant screaming and fighting, everything was more or less clean, and, well…

"The Yeager's might be weird," Rex had concluded within the first week, "But they're a good weird and they care about each other, which is more than my old family could ever say."

And now, as was apparently normal in the Yeager household, Willow and Coyote informed Ethan of their day at the store, which is what they called the family business, he in turned told them that he and Rex had hung around home with Josh and Mack.

"We played some music, smoked a little, had a few brews, just a nice quiet day." Ethan said while picking at the strange food.

The first time Ethan had been so nonchalant about this stuff with the rents had nearly caused Rex to choke on his food, but when Willow and Coyote hadn't seemed bothered in the least by it, he picked up on how the vibe worked.

Then something very unusual happened, for the first time since the night of his arrival, Willow's voice went for airy and happy to something else.

Flat and robotic.

"Kay called today," she said with eyes downcast at her food, and everything stopped like someone had pushed the pause button.

"She's invited us to dinner at Sloane Manor in the Crew Neck." Willow added without any emotion whatsoever.

"Is this about…?" Rex began to ask very tentatively, having no real clue why this was causing her so much grief, but Willow cut him off with an affirmative.

"Yes they want to meet you," she said, "And they've also extended an invitation to your 'significant others' as well."

Willow then gave a heartless laugh, "That's how she phrased it by the way."

"Cool, I guess." Ethan said gently, "Did Aunt Kay say anything about Tom and Elsie bringing dates?"

"No," Willow replied simply while playing with her water glass, "I guess we'll find out."

Dinner was a quiet affair after that.

* * *

Inside Ethan's room, which Mack had nicknamed 'the White Zone' due to its plain white walls, black carpeting, and very minimal décor, Ethan and Rex were sitting on his bed having just done another round of Mortal Kombat on the video game system that Rex had brought over from his old house.

"You picked up on this fast," Rex said in admiration since Ethan had been defeating him soundly after only a couple days of playing it.

"Thanks." Ethan replied enjoying the compliment and having no intention of telling Rex that he played older versions of the game in arcades before.

The principles of Mortal Kombat never really changed, just the button mashing required for the combos.

While they picked characters for the next round, Rex had to ask the question burning in his gut, "So what's up with your Mom and your aunt?"

Ethan sighed at that and asked that they pause the game for a bit.

"It's kind of a long story Rex and I don't have all the details, but I'll tell you what I know.

Rex then got a little more comfortable on the bed and replied, "Ok, shoot."

"Alright then," Ethan said quietly and then began with, "My mom's old name was Sarah Haywood, Aunt Kay was her sister, Katherine Haywood but I guess even then everyone just called her 'Kay'. The Haywood's are, or I guess _were _one of the old money set."

Ethan then added, "I'm not sure if any of them are still around or if they're still rich, Mom won't talk about it and I've never worked up the nerve to ask Kay about it."

"But anyways, when Kay and Mom were both in college, Bromwell no less, my Mom decided to 'rough it' by going to Woodstock and that's where she met my Dad, a wild-eyed hippie who went by the name 'Coyote'."

Ethan then chuckled, "His old name was 'Chuck Yeager', but he had it legally changed to Coyote, I guess it does sound better."

Rex smiled at that but didn't say anything, rather enjoying the story so far.

"Mom and Dad really hit it off but when her parents found out they went ballistic, they tried to force her to end the relationship or else they were going to cut her off."

Ethan seemed a bit sad as he then reached the part that was at the root of his mother and Aunt Kay's problems.

"When Mom turned to Aunt Kay for help she… I guess she chickened out, told her to do what their parents were telling her to do, like a good little girl."

Ethan then laughed darkly and added, "She chose Dad over all that money, moved into a commune with him, and never looked back."

Rex was quiet after that as they resumed the game, but after Ethan's Reptile beat Rex's Scorpion with a devastating finishing move he turned to Ethan and simply said.

"She made the right choice."

Ethan simply smiled at that and asked if he wanted to go again on Mortal Kombat.

"Sure."

* * *

The Winged Tree Country Club was an extremely fancy, elegant place where everyone wore beautiful clothes, ate the perfectly prepared food with class and style, and in two seconds had made Jamie White feel like a fish out of water.

Not even the 'smart casual' preppy stuff that Elsie had bought him along with several other things had made it any easier, he just felt like a kid in a Power Ranger costume at a Charity Ball.

Elsie on the other hand cute a very nice figure in a tight dark red sweater, nice white dress pants, and shoes who dollar value made Jamie's head hurt to think about.

Instead he decided to keep his focus on _her _and shut out everything else around him and hope it would make things easier.

"So did you tell your parents about the motorcycle riding class?" Jamie asked while relishing the after taste of perfectly prepared steak in his mouth.

"Are you kidding?" Elsie retorted with a snort, "If the words 'motorcycle' are even hinted at around my parents expect a rant about the 'hooligans endangering themselves and others on those death machines'."

She said the last in air-quotes and in a more snooty tone, clearly quoting her mother and father verbatim on the subject.

"Sorry!" Jamie replied hurriedly, worried that he had offended her somehow.

"Don't be," Elsie replied with a sniff, "I don't think like that and besides, the shock value just makes it more fun."

Jamie laughed at that and Elsie just smiled, glad that he was getting more at ease around the money set.

"Besides," Elsie thought to herself, "Its good practice for dinner at my parents tomorrow."

After they had finished their meal, they were thanked by their waiter who then got his tip from Elsie, Jamie wondered why they weren't given a bill until he remembered what she had told him earlier.

"Oh right," he thought with a mental face-palm to the brain, "Her parent's membership here means they get charged for meals whether or not they actually eat them."

It was good to get _someone's _money's worth of food this good, even if he did get the vibe of 'You don't belong here' from, well, everyone else present.

They didn't matter, only Elsie did.

* * *

Jeffy grinned at his new cohort, Bob Sorenson as they finally got the drum kit set up on the stage and then gave the 'Ok' sign to Bez who shrugged and said, "Good work kiddos."

They stepped aside while Bez did a few practice notes on her drum kit and gave them both rewarding grins.

"Wanna beer?" Bob asked Jeffy while the later wiped sweat off his brow.

"Sure man." He replied and they stalked off to the Zon's bar, where the bartender handed them two Heinekens, they were Bob's favorites.

It would be about an hour before the Zon was open, which would give the Harpies time to prepare for their all-nighter gig along with Mystik Spiral who had their stuff set up next to the Harpies instruments.

"So you and Kylie are an item right?" Jeffy asked while pointing out the Harpies bass guitar player, a chick with a purple Mohawk, enough metal on her face to build a small car, tribal tattoos all up and down her arms, and lots of leather.

"It's more of a friends with benefits deal," Bob replied after taking a swig of his beer, "She doesn't like commitment, I'm young, available, not wanting anything long term at the moment, and I'm horny so it works out."

Jeffy just laughed at that, "Sounds like a good deal."

"Yeah," Bob replied quietly, and yet he looked at his beer for a long moment before changing gears with, "What about you and Monique?"

Jeffy just smiled at that like the luckiest guy on earth, "Its perfect man, I've… I've never felt this happy in my life before."

Bob then glanced at Jeffy, the kid was well-built and tone, he no longer dressed like a preppy jock but rather was now wearing a sleeveless black NIN shirt, ragged jeans, motorcycle boots, and had some grease under his nails.

"Glad to hear it Jeff," Bob replied before ordering the kid another beer, it would be a while before the 'talented' bands would be playing, so to give them the right amount of enthusiasm they would need to be rip roaring drunk off their asses.

* * *

Trent Lane exited one of the Zon's bathrooms, not really sure which one it was and noticed the two Harpies roadies at the bar drinking beer and grinned to himself.

"They remind me of me and Jess back when we were in High School." Trent said to himself with a rare smile at the memories coming back to him of the good times he had shared with his best pal, right here at the Zon.

Back when they did roadie stuff for the struggling acts while learning the basics of their craft.

"You've gotta start somewhere." Trent said to himself.

Jesse then came up right behind him out of the bathroom and issued a, "Yeah."

Even though he wasn't sure what exactly Trent was talking about, but figured that it was the appropriate response.

* * *

It had taken a little while to get Ed Parker to relax and not act like he (Evan) was going to beat the crap out of him every time a muscle twitched.

"God he's skittish," Evan thought to himself after he had dropped his pencil and had moved to pick it up and Ed had flinched and gone for his inhaler for the fiftieth time, "How does he go through life so afraid all the time?"

But when he sat still and did move real fast, Ed was able to focus on the first round of tutoring, which Evan realized would just be an overview of what he could use a refresher on, and what would serve as a leg up for next year.

"You did pretty good on your science final," Ed said after checking his notes, having been allowed to look at Evan's grades, and knowing which ones were real and which ones were inflated, "And Ethan said that you put real effort into learning it, so we'll just do a few sessions of that."

"Really?" Evan replied with surprise, "I got the vibe that Ethan thought I was, well… Stupid."

"You obviously did something right." Ed replied kindly and being rewarded with a smile from the popular track star, not realizing that it was Evan's first sincere smile to him.

"Awesome." Evan replied with the smile fresh on his lips, while thinking, "Ok maybe this brain stuff isn't so hard after all."

Famous last words and all that.

* * *

"Hi Andrea." Brooke said with an exhausted smile, having been put through the Corporate BS about the 'values' of the company from their manager.

"Hey Brooke," the Goth girl replied in the same tacky Payday vest, "So your parents are making you do this crap too?"

"Yup." Brooke replied flatly.

"What'd we do to them to deserve this?" Andrea asked in philosophical depression.

Brooke just shrugged her shoulders, "Dunno, I guess mine hate me."

Andrea snickered a little and replied, "Mine think that I need more people skills."

"Now where would they get that impression?" Brooke replied with some snark, the influences of Daria and Ethan very much present.

Andrea rewarded her with a small smile, "No clue."

Brooke then leaned on a bunch of oversized laundry detergent boxes and asked if Andrea had a lighter on her.

"Always, why?"

"Cus when break rolls around I'm going to need a cigarette."

"I didn't know you smoke."

"Only when I'm severely stressed."

"But we haven't started working yet." Andrea began before she realized what Brooke was really saying.

"Oh your right, once we've started working we're both going to need a smoke."

The popular girl smiled and replied, "Now you're getting it."

* * *

Joey Black grinned like a loon and gave a whoop of triumph as Stacy showed off her new baby; a newly purchased (but used) black Honda Nighthawk 750 that was now sitting in the Rowe's garage.

"This is awesome Stacy!" Joey said with happiness almost glowing from his eyes, "How'd you talk your parents into buying it for you?"

"I just sold them on the idea that it would be cheaper to get me a motorcycle than a car." Stacy replied sweetly before giving her boyfriend a big hug.

"I just wish they'd let me use it in the classes." Stacy said with a pout.

"Well they want us to use their bikes," Joey replied having read the rulebook carefully, "Something about insurance reasons."

Then to make her feel better Joey planted a kiss on her cheek, "Besides we're beginners so why risk your new Nighthawk until we've at least got the basics down?"

"I guess you're right," Stacy replied with a smile and a bounce returning to her, "But how are you going to get a hog?"

Joey shrugged his shoulders, "I have some cash saved up for a first car, I think I could use that to get a bike instead, not sure how Jeffy and Jamie will go about it, but getting the endorsement on their licenses will at least make sure that they will be legal to ride for when they can afford it."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Stacy replied before asking Joey if he wanted to come inside her house for lunch.

"My Mom is home though," she warned him when Joey came much very closer for more than just food, "So dessert will have to wait until later."

Joey was a little disappointed but said ok and headed in with his very steady girlfriend, knowing her well enough that she had quite the appetite for carnal delights.

And always delivered on her promises.

* * *

Jeffy Grey took a seat with his friends Jamie and Joey at the food court after a much deserved break from his new job at the Mall.

"I still can't believe you landed a gig at Guitar World." Jamie said with a shake of his head in disbelief.

Jeffy just grinned, "It helps to have connections, Monique's uncle is the manager and when she told him I was looking for a job, what do ya know? There was a slot open."

"Hey does this mean you're going to be learning to play guitars and stuff? Joey asked while munching on a hot dog, which forced him to repeat himself.

"Well…" Jeffy began while trying to find a way to phrase it, "Since I've been dating Monique and doing roadie stuff I've started to pick up on some of it so it'd be kinda dumb not to learn…"

He then laughed and added, "Besides I work in a guitar store so now it's almost required, you know?"

"Well not really," Jamie replied after finishing his soda, "But I'll take your word on it man."

The Three J's enjoyed a good chuckle at that, god it was nice to just hang out with your bros from time to time.

They then enjoyed some idle chat before Jeffy asked Jamie about his new girlfriend, Elsie Sloane.

"I heard that you guys met that the Landon's shindig right?"

Jamie nodded at that with pride, "Yeah man, we bumped into each other at the party and we started talking and we hit it off."

Joey smiled at that, "What a catch man, but what was she doing at a LHS event? I thought the Sloane's went to that fancy prep school."

Jamie nodded at that, "Yup, she goes to Fielding with her brother, but he's dating Daria so when he went to the Landon's with her, she tagged along."

Joey and Jeffy said, "Cool!"

Jamie beamed with pride, "Afterward we talked on the phone and just hung out for a couple days before she took me to DC on a day trip, remember all those times Quinn had us go to the mall with her and her friends?"

Both Jeffy and Joey shuddered at the memories, all the bag carrying, the expensive gifts, being forced to wait in the car for hours on end, and all of it to get the favor of girls who didn't give a crap about them at all.

"Well this was so much better," Jamie replied with a big grin, "She bought clothes for _me."_

"Whoa!"

"No way!"

"Way," Jamie replied happily, "In addition to my usual stuff, I've got a bunch of designer threads for when she has me around her class of people, she even took me out on our first date."

"Whoa!" the other two J's breathed in awe of something so alien, the girl taking the guy out.

"Well she had too," Jamie admitted with some shame, "I couldn't _possibly _afford the Winged Tree Club, and trust me that place serves the best food ever!"

"It really makes that Chez Pierre place seem low rent." Jamie added for effect.

Jamie White them got his smile back with, "I did everything else I could though for her and I think she really appreciated it. I don't think those Fielding guys she used to date were very nice to her."

Jeffy and Joey both grinned at that, of the three of them, Jamie was always the one who minded his manners the best, and knew all the rules for 'proper dining'.

"Though where he learned it all is still a mystery." Jeffy thought to himself, having picked up quite a few pointers on how to do fine dining from Jamie.

Jamie smiled mysteriously as if he could read their thoughts, and in this instance he had managed to make a pretty good guess at what they were.

"Heh," Jamie thought, "They didn't have the advantage of having an aunt who teaches 'proper etiquette' at St. Agatha's."

But as always, Jamie kept that tidbit to himself, always wanting to have an advantage to himself.

Just on the off chance that he ever wound up competing against his friends for the same girl again.

* * *

"And so now that my mother's workload is winding down for the summer if I don't find something to do during summer break I know she'll inflict something on me." Daria said morosely over pizza with her boyfriend Tom Sloane.

Tom for his part offered the suggestion of working as an intern with him at his father's company, Grace, Sloane, and Page.

"That would work except for one thing." Daria said sadly.

"What's that?" Tom asked, a bit confused.

"Because you're interning there, and I know that my mother's ulterior motive for this will be to distract me from the whole 'boyfriend' thing."

"And here I thought she liked me." Tom replied sardonically.

"It's not about that," Daria replied defensively, "It's a simple matter of her abandoning her old 60's Free Love ideals when it comes to her daughters."

"Ah," Tom replied sagely, "The poisonous sting of yuppie hypocrisy strikes again."

"Pretty much." Daria replied wearily before taking a bite out of her cheese pizza.

She then looked up from her food and gave her boyfriend a special kind of smile that she now reserved for him and him alone.

"But you've gotten some brownie points for offering." Daria added with unusual boldness.

Now it was Tom's turn to grin and he answered with, "Sweet, I'll probably have to cash them in after the big dinner with my parents though."

Daria sighed at that but she hadn't been able to figure out a way around it so she tried to look at the positives, "Our friends will be there."

"Plus," Tom conceded, "But with my Mom and Aunt Willow's relationship such as it is… I have no idea what's going to unfold."

Daria offered her boyfriend a sympathetic smile and said, "Whatever does unfold I… I'll be there for you."

"That means a lot to me Daria." Tom answered after a long moment, his face easily readable, even Kevin would have seen that he was deeply touched by her words.

The rest of their lunch date at Pizza Prince was spent in silence, but a good silence.

* * *

"Talk about old money," Sandi said with a mocking sneer, "You'd think they've never seen a girl in a beautiful dress on the arm of a handsome man before."

Stephen Pierson-Wells II smiled at that while savoring his Halibut then swallowed and replied, "I think they're just jealous."

Then they both laughed at that, knowing full well that their good looks were not the reason why the lunch patrons of the Winged Tree Club were staring dagger at them.

Granted they were dressed in 'nice casual' clothes, which Stephen had bought for her as a gift, and yes Sandi did look a lot more like her old 'fashion obsessed' self.

But she had kept her hair the way she now liked it, bright pink and now with blue and white stripes, and she still looked like a million bucks.

Even though she now preferred to look like the fan of rock n' roll that she was now.

Black shirts to support her favorite bands, shredded jeans, comfortable sneakers, various accessories, minimal makeup, and of course listening to awesome tunes didn't hurt either.

And far from letting these people get under her skin, Sandi found herself falling back on an old trick from her bitchy days, by simply holding her nose up and acting as though everyone else around her was dirt under her feet.

Except for Steve of course, but all these other people sucked.

Then as she enjoyed the weird fish that he had ordered for her, she heard Steve go, "Uh oh!"

"What?" Sandi said while turning to see where he was looking.

An older gentleman and his wife were walking towards them, and then it clicked in Sandi's head who they must be.

"Mother, Father." Stephen said in greeting as they reached the table, "I wasn't expecting to see you two here."

"The same could be said of you and your… Companion." Stephen's mother said flatly after having done a double take at the sight of Sandi Griffin.

His father on the other hand seemed to be taking this in stride a bit better, "Unless I'm mistaken this is the girl that Steve has mentioned to us before, Sandi I believe?"

"Yes." Sandi said politely while offering her hand very formally, "Alessandra Griffin, though I prefer Sandi."

"Charmed," Stephen's father said before taking the hand and planting a very chaste and polite kiss upon it.

Stephen then introduced them, "Sandi this is my father, Stephen Pierson-Wells I, and my mother Patricia."

They both nodded in acknowledgement to this and then Stephen asked, "Where is Edmund and Harold?"

"Your brothers are out yachting with the Feldman boy today Stephen." Patricia said primly.

"Oh I know Skylar," Sandi replied with surprise, "He dated a couple of my old friends."

"Old friends?" Patricia asked with a hint of hostility at this… Whatever she was.

Sandi seemed a bit put off but held her own by not lashing out, "At Lawndale High."

"Oh yes," Stephen Senior butted in to prevent a scene, "The Feldman's had some sort of bad blood with the Headmaster at Fielding so poor Skylar had to go to public school."

He said this in a manner that showed his contempt for the very concept of going to 'Public School'.

Stephen II gave Sandi a very apologetic look as his parents then had a server pull up a couple of chairs since technically the table was theirs as part of their membership.

"You owe me big for this." Sandi fully intended to say to her boyfriend as their luncheon transformed into the awkward first meeting with the parents she hadn't been planning on at all.

At least the food was good.

* * *

"So how's the driving lessons going?" Jane asked with her back turned to her guests while putting the finishing touches on her new painting, which involved a Zombie DeMartino eating Kevin's intestines, she was now planning a whole series of these.

Ethan snorted while lying on Jane Lane's bed and replied, "Ask my teacher over there."

Rex for his part had been distracted by what was on TV, finding that that weird show that Ethan and his friends like was growing on him.

"What?" He went while Sick Sad World did a story on 'Romans who love Roman Showers fresh from the source, Next on Sick Sad World!'

Then after Jane repeated herself Rex went, "Oh, well not too bad considering that Ethan doesn't have much experience driving stick shift."

Then he realized how that could be interpreted and stammer out, "Sorry! I didn't mean it like that."

For their parts, Jane and Ethan spared Rex a ribbing and Jane asked, "Why are you teaching him to drive your truck? Didn't the Yeager's have some little bug car stored away or something?"

"Yeah," Ethan answered in annoyance at his situation, "The old VW Beatle, the problem is that while it sat idle in the garage it decided to give up the ghost forever, as we found out when I turned the key in it and the engine started to burn."

"Yikes!" Jane stated while applying the last dab of paint and took a step back to admire her new work.

"And since Josh and Mack don't have cars of their own, I'm showing E the ropes." Rex finished with a beaming smile of pride, having discovered something that he was good at and also helped him bond with Ethan in a platonic, brotherly way.

"And I'm grateful for it." Ethan answered while rising up off of the bed, "And speaking of the menfolk, where are they?"

"They're catching a ride with someone…" Rex began before they heard the doorbell ring.

Jane sighed and began to head out of her room to answer it, but when she opened her bedroom door she heard the voice of her brother, and a voice that she wished to never, ever hear at her home.

"Did they catch a ride with Kevin?" Jane asked while doing an impressive face palm to the forehead.

"Yup." Ethan replied very flatly as the three of them heard a very familiar voice go, "Hey Rex! I brought Mack and Josh over, even though I've never been here before cus you know… Wow what a mess!"

"Yeah…" Trent drawled audibly as Rex and Ethan followed Jane out of the room and on down the stairs, "We don't do a whole lot of cleaning around here."

"What about your parents?" Kevin asked in confusion, remembering that his Mom did cleaning stuff like that, his Dad said it was 'natures orders' or something.

"They're not here." Trent answered simply.

"Oh cool," Kevin answered happily, his confusion forgotten, "Hey Rex!"

"Sup bro?" Rex said from behind Jane as they approached.

Ethan went around them and gave his boyfriend, Josh a hug and then glanced at Mack and said, "He didn't call you 'Mack Daddy'.

Mack chuckled at that, "Yeah, Kevin figured that if I was dating another guy that calling me that would be 'weird'."

In the meanwhile Rex approached Mack and hearing this said, "Just think, all these years of being called that and the way to get it through to him to stop calling you that only involved kissing another boy."

Mack laughed at that, "Like this?" Then planted a comical sloppy one on Rex.

"Ahh drool!" Rex complained good-naturedly once he pulled away.

Kevin in the meanwhile suppressed an audible 'Eww" but he did shudder a bit, but not out of homophobia, but just out of a general grossed sort of way.

Plus the drool wasn't helping either.

Kevin looked to Jane of all people for guidance, since she was the smartest person there that he could talk to that wasn't a gay guy, and he didn't know Trent at all.

Jane shrugged and said, "They can catch a ride with Rex."

"Ok cool!" Kevin said happily, forgetting being grossed out and telling everyone bye, then headed for the door, and sparing the rest of them the dubious pleasure of his company.

* * *

"So what, if anything are you going to get for a first car?" Josh asked while he, Ethan, and everyone else sat around the Lane's normally unused gazebo.

"Not sure," Ethan answered, "I'll have to look around, and see if the rents can fork over some cash for a new used clunker."

Rex then offered up some advice, "You should get a couple of the car advertising magazines, the local ones, and go through 'em for a deal."

Then when everyone looked at him, Rex went, "What? How do you think I found my truck? I didn't want to get squired by some jack-off used car dealer."

"Good advice man," Trent spoke up while leaning on a post, "Wish you'd have said something to Max before he bought the Tank."

"Uh Trent," Jane said gently, "We didn't know Rex back then."

"Oh yeah your right Jayne." Trent said before starting to laugh at himself which turned into a coughing fit, "Sorry man."

"It's cool." Rex answered, already suspecting that Trent Lane wasn't exactly playing with a full deck.

Mack in the meanwhile looked at Jane and asked, "What's the Tank?"

"It's a van or it was once." She answered cryptically.

"Do you think it could get us to the 'Rock a Phial' concert in Heavensport?" Ethan asked out of curiosity.

"Don't think it could get out that far." Trent replied in his sexy little drawl, but Josh noticed that Ethan didn't respond to it the way he used too.

"Whew!" Josh thought in relief, glad that Ethan's old crush on him was far in the past.

"I told you E, my truck can get us there." Rex replied quietly.

"Well if more people want to do we'll need more than one car." Ethan answered in turn.

"True," Rex conceded, "But who'd else do we know that would want to go?"

Jane Lane then held up her arm and waved it around like a kid desperate for her teacher's attention.

"Nevermind." Rex sighed while Ethan quietly chuckled and Trent began to ask, "Rock a Phial?"

Jane noted this and decided to talk Tom and Daria into coming with her; she'd need a reliable second car to ride in that wasn't Trent's blue bomb.

"Or worse, the Tank." Jane thought with a shudder, memories of the failed trip to Alternapalooza emerging from places that she and Daria would have rather left buried until the end of time.

Or until senility took care of them, one of the two.

* * *

Andrea felt her back ache as she crouched down and scrubbed and scrubbed at the insides of the last toilet bowl in the women's bathroom at Payday.

More than once Andrea had found herself revolted by the things that people apparently had in their stomachs, or felt could be thrown into the toilet like a trash can.

"At least today wasn't so bad," Andrea thought to herself, "I didn't find any floaters, or any used tampons, or… Oh gods stop thinking about it!"

She then shuddered as the images from her worst experiences in lavatory cleaning began to emerge.

Then a scream of horror pierced through her mental review and brought the Goth girl a small sense of relief and a touch of sadistic pleasure.

"I guess Brooke just got started in the men's room." Andrea thought very evilly before finishing up the women's toilets, thinking grateful thoughts to whoever had invented disposable rubber gloves.

Then she added an additional relief to the list since she wasn't the one who had to clean the guy's bathroom this week.

"Sometimes they don't even reach the damn toilet," Andrea's treacherous inner voice whispered, "And that one time someone had used their crap to write on the wall…"

Andrea slammed that voice down with a mental body slam as she gathered up her cleaning supplies, grateful that she had gotten it done early this go around.

Then she prayed that there wouldn't be any 'mishaps' until her shift was over, the last thing she needed was a double round of bathroom duty.

* * *

Daria wished to whatever deities were out there ranging from the Apophis to Zeus that she could temporarily shut down her brain for the duration of what she was having to endure for her second dinner at the Sloanes.

"Daria!" Quinn whined, "Come on out now, it couldn't have taken you _that _long to change into the next outfit."

Daria sighed like a prisoner about to be taken to her place of execution, and stepped out of the dressing room at Cashman's.

She was wearing the 9th outfit selected for her by her younger sister, Quinn Morgendorffer.

"Hm…" Quinn said while forcing Daria to spin around a bit, "Well it's a classic little black dress and the shape works on you beautifully… I'd recommend getting it, but not using it for this dinner but hold it in reserve for, you know, a romantic dinner for two…"

Daria kept her grunt of frustration at this slow torture, suspecting that Quinn was enjoying every second of what she was putting her sister through.

"But I have to admit that I do look good in this dress." Daria admitted to herself, very deep within her mind in a place where Quinn wouldn't be able to see it.

Unfortunately her face gave away her pleasure and Quinn gave Daria a wicked smile, "Just try on the next one and once we're done here, we'll get shoes to match."

Then to keep Daria from blowing her lid Quinn added, "I've got enough accessories at home for you to borrow so we'll skip that part, and I'll do your makeup myself. No sense in letting you attempt it and flub things."

That made Daria feel just a tiny bit better.

Then she recalled the part about the shoes and marched back into the dressing room as if she was about to put her head on the chopping block.

"God this is soooo much fun!" Quinn thought wickedly, "She must _really _like Tom if she's willing to turn to me for fashion help."

Quinn then thought very silently that God only knew that her sister needed it, even after she had improved her wardrobe a bit and got rid of that coat and changed the glasses, she was still so… Unfashionable.

* * *

"Ok, so the red-headed one is Jeffy Grey and he's dating Monique right?" Elsie asked in her usual jaded voice while looking at the helpful picture of the 'Three J's' that Jamie had thoughtfully taken off of a wall and held up for her.

Even though she hadn't met the other two yet, it was hard to keep their names straight.

"Yeah!" Jamie replied happily, glad she was picking up on it faster than, well… Most people.

"And the black-haired one is Joey Black and he's dating Stacy Rowe." Elsie concluded and then gave a faint smile when she glanced at the picture of the girl in pigtails.

Elsie then asked, "So what's Monique's last name?"

"Uh…" Jamie went since he didn't actually know it, "I never asked."

It was all he could say honestly.

Elsie sounded amused at that, "Well ask, for my sake, kay?"

"Okay!" Jamie replied before putting the picture back on the wall of his room, and then he remembered something.

"Well Monique isn't taking the class with us," Jamie added, "I guess she does stuff… Or something."

"A job?" Elsie supplied and smiled with amusement at his embarrassment at not making that connection.

"Well I know she sings in a band," Jaime said with his face a little red, "And she's getting cash from her parents while doing business courses at Lawndale State, or so Jeffy's said."

Elsie smiled at that, which gave Jamie the courage to ask, "What about your friends?"

Elsie Sloane sighed and said, "I don't have many friends, real ones at any rate, a lot of suck ups though because of the 'Sloane' name."

She seemed a bit more bored while sinking into Jamie's bed and sitting on the edge, Jamie knelt down beside her.

"But the ones I do have," Elsie added gently, "I treasure."

She then patted an empty space next to her and Jamie eagerly sat next to her, she wrapped an arm around him and said, "I'll tell you about them afterward."

"Afterward what…? Jamie began to ask before she answered him with the first real kiss since they had started dating.

And while on that day they didn't 'consummate' things, they did make out and while they kept their clothes on, there was heavy petting involved.

* * *

Ed got off at the usual bus stop on the way home a lot lighter on his feet than normal, a happy grin plastered on his face.

"He's doing so well," the kid everyone called 'the Head' thought with glee, "Plus… I think he likes me."

The sessions with Evan Larson were already showing great promise, the big track star was getting the hang of the Biology stuff, so Ed was thinking about moving on to History next.

"And today he showed me around his house," Ed thought with glee, "He's so lucky to have such rich parents, and to have all that cool stuff."

Ed then glanced at his surroundings on the way home and suddenly felt even poorer than he actually was.

Granted he was still in Lawndale and it wasn't the worst neighborhood by far, but was a place that had seen better days.

Ed thanked his lucky star that the local hoods weren't out plying their trade, "Or rather the wannabe's." Ed thought with private contempt.

Even he knew that the criminal element in Lawndale was relatively low and what was present amounted to petty crooks, but he had learned long ago to avoid looking for trouble.

Since it had a tendency to find him.

Ed distracted himself with thoughts of how well things were unfolding, he was making enough money that he could afford to get new glasses by the end of summer, he was making a new, cool friend, and for the first time in a long time he felt happy.

Then when he came in sight of home, he heard something crash inside and his mother screams.

Ed shut his eyes and felt a tear drop and decided he didn't want to deal with it tonight, not when he had been feeling so good about life for once.

"I'll see if the shelter will put up with me again tonight." Ed said to no one in particular before turning around and beginning the relatively long walk to the local shelter.

It was a better option than running off, he had done that once and he _still _saw his picture on milk cartons even after he had been taken off the official list.

"Maybe if I become close enough to Evan he'll let me use a spare bedroom every now and then." Ed fantasized hopefully, letting himself imagine what it would be like to have a family like Evan's, one that could afford nice things, that loved each other, that made sure that their kids were well fed, dressed, and never let them forget how much they were cared for.

Ed felt more tears fall down his face as he walked down the ever darker streets, his eyes filled with visions of better life that only existed in his imagination.

* * *

Tom picked up the phone and recognized the number on the caller id, "What's up Ethan?"

"Hey Tom," Ethan replied while lounging on his living room couch, "Any big plans?"

"Besides the dinner tomorrow night?"

"Yes besides that." Ethan answered with some amusement.

"Well other than being a unpaid intern at Dad's business, and the trip to the Cove at the end of July, nothing major, why?"

"Well Josh came up with this idea for me him, and a couple friends to go to the 'Rock A Phial' show in Heavensport, and Jane and Trent both want to come, but there isn't enough room in Rex's truck for everyone so…"

"You need another car." Tom concluded.

"Yeah." Ethan admitted without shame.

"This might be a hard sell with Daria," Tom pointed out, "She told me about the failed trip to Alternapalooza."

"Yeah…" Ethan said, having heard of the legends of the peanut butter sandwich from his boyfriend, "But I know you can use your manly wiles on the fair maiden."

Tom laughed at that, "Something like that… Though if I do this I have a feeling Elsie will find out and tag along as well."

"Sounds good," Ethan replied since he was fond of Elsie, "What about her new boyfriend, Jamie?"

"Don't really know him," Tom admitted while feeling the usual brotherly sense of wanting to protect his sister from the boys who wanted only one thing, "But he'd better be up to snuff, most of the guys that have tried to pick up Elsie before were all, well…"

"Pathetic, spoiled, entitled cretins?" Ethan stated flatly.

"Yeah pretty much." Tom replied in turn.

"I don't really know Jamie that well," Ethan admitted freely, "He used to follow Quinn along with his friends like a puppy until he figured out that she was more trouble than she was worth."

Tom made an amused sound at that, having found Daria's sister to be pretty but extremely self-absorbed.

"I know he's branching out, he's taking a motorcycle riding course over the summer." Ethan explained, mentioning what little he knew of the kid.

"Motorcycles?" Tom asked himself, "I hope he doesn't get Elsie mixed up in that stuff, our parents will kill us."

"Why would they kill you?"

"Because they'll say that I should have noticed something was wrong and stepped in, 'as a big brother should'." Tom recited the last in a snooty high pitched tone.

Ethan had a feeling that this was a mantra that Tom heard often.

"Well," Ethan said carefully, "I haven't heard anything of the like myself, so I doubt you have anything to worry about."

Tom snorted at that, "This is Elsie, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Ethan stated flatly, "So you're on for Rock A Phial, right?"

"Just got to talk to Daria, that's all."

"Cool, so we'll see each other at Dinner then."

"Yup, see you then E."

"Bye."

"Bye."

_Click!_

* * *

As the Yeager's Volvo pulled up the main driveway in front of Sloane Manor in easily the ritziest area of the Crew Neck, Ethan couldn't resist a little fun.

He started humming the tune from Jaws.

"Ethan," Josh said with forced politeness, "I know it's funny but please stop, I'm nervous enough."

Ethan stopped humming and replied, "Ok, anything for you love."

Josh smiled at that and reached for Ethan's hand, "I just wish I knew why this has me shook up, I've been here before."

"Yes," Ethan confirmed before adding, "But when you were here it wasn't for a formal event."

"True." Josh replied before squeezing his hand tight just as the car stopped and they looked up at the parents in the front.

Coyote parked his vehicle and stepped out first, everyone else followed and just in time to see Rex park his truck with Mack in the passenger side, both of whom looked very nice in a tux.

Ethan couldn't help but admire the two Adonis's, then after glancing nervously at Josh couldn't help but smile at the fact that his man was admiring them too.

"Be thankful that I'm not the jealous type." Ethan whispered to Josh and laughed as he jumped out of his skin.

"Oh god Ethan I'm sorry!" Josh replied in total humiliation, his face rather red.

"Don't be," Ethan replied kindly, "I'm just teasing you…"

Josh gave a nervous laugh as Rex and Mack both climbed out of the truck like two Old Norse warriors, and they heard Mack say, "Nice digs."

"Yeah." Rex replied and anyone with half a brain could instantly tell that he was nervous.

They approached the Yeager's and both smiled at the sight, Coyote and Willow were dressed up… For hippies.

Ethan and Josh on the other hand had dressed up a bit, both in nice satin shirts (blue for Josh, dark red for Ethan), black khakis, and decent black shoes, though they had elected to keep their piercings in.

"Where'd you get the tuxes?" Ethan asked out of curiosity as the now completed group began to head to the Sloane's front door, not remembering seeing that in the stuff Rex had unpacked from his old place.

"Jodie got me this tux a few months before we broke up." Mack explained and seemed a bit downcast as he talked.

Rex put an arm around him, knowing that Mack was sensitive to not having a whole lot of cash.

"I rented mine." Rex stated quietly, and Ethan raised an eyebrow at that, knowing that Rex wasn't exactly swimming in cash either.

But he didn't get a chance to ask since they reached the door, which was answered by a servant who was sufficiently experienced not to blink at the sight of the kids in nice clothes and the parents in eye popping (new) hippie garb.

He let them in with a polite "Good evening." and a mental "WTF?!"

* * *

"Thanks for driving me here Jamie." Daria said kindly while getting out of Jamie White's rather decent corvette.

"No problem Daria," Jamie replied as he got out of the vehicle as well, "But I do have a question, how did you get my number?"

"I looked it up in Quinn's datebook," Daria explained while she shut the door, "It seemed like less hassle if I rode with someone coming here already than with either one of my parents."

"Besides Trent's car broke down and there was no way I'm riding in the Tank in this dress, or letting my parents anywhere _near _the Sloane's." Daria thought to herself, while hoping that Tom would see it the same way.

Jamie thought that over for a minute before saying, "Actually yeah I could see that."

Then he muttered something about getting a new number just in case Quinn decided to call.

"I guess that's one primrose path he doesn't want to walk down again." Daria thought to herself in admiration while they made their way to the front door.

The servant seemed impressed with what he saw, Jamie White did cut a nice figure in a specially tailored suit (paid for by Elsie for this occasion), while Daria wore a royal purple floor length evening gown, the cut was conservative and yet elegant, with skillfully applied makeup, the right shoes, and a simple diamond bracelet (borrowed from her mother Helen).

She had decided to save some of the other five dresses Quinn had made her buy for other occasions.

They were escorted by the man who had answered the door and shown to a parlor with only a minimum of fuss, where Daria instantly noticed that the Sloane's were dressed to the nines, and one Sloane in particular noticed her just as quickly.

"Wow Daria…" Tom said with wide eyes and soft tender tones, "You look amazing."

Daria muttered embarrassed thanks and tried to turn her face away when Tom approached, but he gently took her chin into his hand and turned her back so she could see him again.

Then he kissed her on the cheek, ignoring everyone around them, and smiled bashfully afterward, while Daria turned a lovely shade of crimson.

Elsie during this told Jamie he looked amazing in his new suit, and when he tried to be bashful himself she stopped him with a simple, "Knock it off Jamie, you look good, be proud of it."

"As you wish milady." He said teasingly and Elsie couldn't resist a grin at that.

"I didn't know Jamie knew how to tease." Josh thought out loud, making the other guys around him chuckle.

After that Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, so far there hadn't been any major fireworks yet, he glanced at the adults in the room, Angier and Kay were wrapping up some polite conversation with Willow and Coyote.

The contrast between the two couples was truly stunning to behold, if you didn't know what was going on it was easy to forgive not noticing that Willow and Kay were sisters.

"But if you look past the clothes you can see it." Ethan thought to himself quietly.

"What?" Mack asked and Ethan realized he had thought that aloud.

"Oh nothing," Ethan said hurriedly, "Just thinking about my Mom and Aunt Kay is all."

His companions nodded at that, Rex and Mack having been told about Willow's past as Sarah Haywood, or at least as much as Ethan knew.

"Which wasn't very much." He thought to himself with irritation, rather disappointed that neither one of his parents had had the guts to give a more detailed history to them.

Before throwing them into this minefield and telling them not to trip on anything.

Rex and Mack in the meanwhile were both relieved that the Sloane's had been polite to them, both of them had been nervous, afraid that the uber rich relatives of the Yeagers would be extremely snobby and judgmental of them.

So far that fear had proven foolish.

"But I guess time will tell huh?" Rex heard his inner voice whisper to him.

The Sloanes apparently finished talking to the Yeagers and Angier and Kay Sloane moved to speak to their children's dates for the evening.

"Daria it's so good to see you again." Kay said warmly, while shaking the girl's hand, "You look especially lovely this evening my dear."

"Thank you." Daria said so quietly it bordered on a whisper, but it was sincere.

Angier also greeted Daria, all the while unable to resist thinking that his son had found a pretty impressive girlfriend.

"She's certainly intelligent and clearly more beautiful than she lets show normally." Angier thought to himself.

A Sloane-esque thought came to mind, a specter of marriage, but Angier squashed that.

"It's _waaaay_ too early to be worried about that." Angier thought to himself as they moved on to Elsie's new beau, Jamie White.

Who quickly proved to have had some sort of formal training in proper etiquette, whatever his middle class background.

Even while giving him polite greetings as well, Angier decided to ask his investigator to dig a little deeper next time since they obviously had missed something.

But after some hors-oeuvres were offered and the adults drank some champagne (the 'minors' had to put up with sparkling cider), the Sloane's then ushered their guests to the main dining room where the dinner party could truly begin.

* * *

Jane Lane stood alone in the crowd at the Zon, and did her best to find her brother's attempts at music at least tolerable.

"Maybe it would work better with booze…" Jane pondered for half a second before saying to herself, "Nah."

She had seen some interesting looking things and people at the Zon in the past that had wound up on sketchpads and canvas, but tonight for some reason she wasn't seeing anything that struck her fancy.

Normally she'd have some sort of company but that night her friends were off at the Sloane's fancy dinner party, eating food that no doubt had fancy French names, off of fancy china, and getting to pretend to be snooty.

"Wait," Jane suddenly thought to herself, "Remember what Ethan mentioned, lots of potential drama between his mother and 'Auntie Kay'."

Suddenly being alone at the Zon didn't seem so bad, she had enough family drama whenever any of her other family members stopped wandering and stayed home for a few nights.

Then her brother reached the end of his first set, which for some reason caused some confusion among the other members of Mystik Spiral and Jane was amused by their antics until Trent managed to restore a measure of order.

"Order for the dysfunctional at any rate." Jane said to no one in particular and felt herself wait for the snark to come from her friends that weren't there.

"I didn't think they were that bad." A voice emerged from behind her; Jane turned around and found herself face to face with a large muscular punk with piercings, tattoo sleeves, a cut off ragged shirt, ratty camouflage shorts, combat boots, and bright blue hair.

"Hey Bob." Jane said casually, having seen him around before but hadn't really talked to him much since Junior High.

"Hiya back Jane." Bob replied and then smiled and indicated towards the front, Jane followed his gaze and noticed her brother had started to come towards them but seeing her with a guy had caused him to just pause and wave at them before heading to the bar with the others.

Jane laughed and said, "I think he thinks we're together."

"I think that what you're thinking about what he's thinking is right." Bob quipped and was rewarded with a smile.

"Descartes would either agree with you or disagree with you, I don't remember which one." Jane replied with her red lips still very much smiling at him.

Bob smiled right back and Jane found herself noticing that he had a very handsome face in the process.

He then said, "I was thinking about getting some grub from Joe's Diner, the food is disgusting but one of the servers is schizophrenic."

Jane raised an eyebrow in interest, "Think I can get in?"

Bob's smile grew a touch… Sardonic, "Just check in with your big brother first, that way he doesn't have to worry about you."

"Why Bob that isn't very punk of you at all." Jane teased merrily along with a theatric toss of her short black hair with one of her hands.

"Probably not," Bob admitted freely, "But it's the right thing to do."

"Feel free to tag along then," Jane replied, "Besides the other option is to stay here and listen to this stuff… sober."

Bob shuddered at the thought and said, "Lead the way Miss Lane."

* * *

While Jamie was able to really show off what he knew, in a subtle way of course, Ethan couldn't help but smile as Mack struggled to remember which slightly different piece of silverware was to be used with each course.

Ethan and Josh had both decided to just guess and see if they were right, Rex having no clue what went with what at all wasn't even bothering to try, other than avoiding putting his elbows on the table, but that was because Kay had given him a look when he tried it (and when Willow was distracted).

Daria in the meanwhile finished her soup and finding it to be delicious, but not sure _what _exactly the soup had been to begin with.

She gave Ethan a sympathetic smile and glanced at the adults, it was an interesting spectacle to behold.

Kay and Willow were trying to make small talk and connect, and avoid saying anything that might cause the other to take offence.

Then end result was that their husbands had to alternate between picking up the slack and serving as distractions.

Coyote had accidently on purpose dropped his fork three times and Angier had been forced to appear a bit scatterbrained as he changed the topics up quite a bit whenever one of the two women struggled to say something in reply.

Then they hit on a solution, interrogate the hostages… I mean the teenagers.

"So Daria," Angier said after wiping some sweat off of his brow, "My son tells me that you're looking for something to occupy your time this summer."

Daria answered, "Yes." And then gave her boyfriend a look that read "We'll talk about this later."

"Well we still have some openings for summer interns at Grace, Sloane, and Page, Daria." Angier said politely.

Much to the shock of everyone that knew her, Daria was obviously thinking it over.

"Well…" she said hesitantly, "My Mother is starting to get on the warpath about a 'summer activity' and nothing has come up… I mean yes I think I'll take you up on that Mr. Sloane."

"Please Daria you can call me Angier," he said warmly, "And might I say welcome aboard."

He then laughed at that little joke before finishing off a scotch that Daria suspected was worth more than her mother's diamond bracelet.

"What about your plans for the summer Jamie?" Kay asked out of curiosity.

Jamie seemed a bit flushed at being put on the spot like that, "Well I… Don't really have any major plans this summer, other than… ooff!"

Elsie had kicked him pretty hard in the shin and proved to be a master of not looking like she had done so.

An awkward pause filled the room, to keep the beans from being spilled Ethan blurted out, "No big plans here either Aunt Kay, other than going to Rock A' Phial in Heavensport."

That made both the Sloane's smile and they began to reminisce about the concerts they went too at Bromwell.

"In fact I met Angier at a free concert of the Carpenters when he was the big man on campus." Kay said with a laugh at the happy memory.

Angier also smiled, especially because he was thinking about what they had done _after _the concert, "And you were that beautiful sophomore girl in that tight little white sweater…"

Kay's smile grew and she said, "Oh stop Angier, you'll embarrass the kids." But she laughed as she said it.

Even Willow smiled at her sister's antics, and the cringe on the faces of Tom and Elsie Sloane.

Jamie gave his girl a sympathy pat and a whisper of how all parents seem to love making their kids miserable.

"Sound about right." Elsie replied to him sweetly and she felt butterflies in her stomach at Jamie's big smile.

Daria offered Tom sympathy in the form of, "And just think, we haven't gotten a call about an attempted murder yet."

Tom grinned at that and said, "Knock on wood."

Then they rapped their knuckles on the antique dining room table and nearly howled with laugher when everyone stared at them for the seemingly random act.

Rex felt relief that he hadn't been interrogated yet but that relief was dashed when Kay and Angier both glanced at him and Angier asked, "And we haven't heard anything from my sister-in-law's young ward yet, Rex is it?"

He confirmed that was indeed his name, having hated it as a kid until he had learned it meant 'King' in some fancy dead language, after that he had born it with pride ever since.

Then he and a little later Mack found themselves drawn into a rather polite conversation that wasn't an interrogation but did require them to hold back some things in the process like they were in the hot seat.

Rex and Mack gave a _very _edited version of how they had first met, making the location _Trendees_ rather than the Zon, dropped any mention of alcohol whatsoever, and the angst that had followed, to a degree.

"Yes sir," Mack replied quietly, "It was Rex who helped me figure it out, after pretty much all my loved ones had guessed it way before I did."

Mack then added a bit more sadly, "Except for my Dad."

Rex put a comforting arm around his man and didn't say anything, just kept the arm there for as long as politeness would allow.

Mack then held Rex's hand secretly under the table and added, "But compared what he went through with his family…"

"It's ok," Rex replied calmly and yet with a hint of emotion, "We both went through some rough stuff but… We made it out intact."

Mack smiled at that and would had added to it but they were interrupted by a servant appearing out of nowhere with a cellphone on an actual silver platter.

"Sorry to disturb," the nondescript man said in an impossible to trace voice, "But you have a phone call from Hardgarden."

Willow went rigid at that and Coyote suddenly turned to face his wife and grabbed onto her and was now seemingly holding her in place.

"Oh." Kay said flatly, "I see…"

She then took the phone and answered it and the mood went from hopeful too cold in an instant.

"Hello…? Yes this is her… What is this about? What?! Oh… How did she? Oh I see… Well I supposed I can ask but I won't make any promises Mark."

Willow sucked in a very audible breath and Ethan could have sworn his mother growled, but her face was hidden behind her hair at that angle, but Angier had a bird's eye view of it and could easily see that at the name 'Mark', his sister-in-law's countenance had become a mask of pure rage.

"Ok… Thank you. Goodbye." Kay said before hanging up.

Kay Sloane took in a deep breath, and then two more before she said as calmly as she could, "Mother found out about… Our reunion."

"And?" Willow said from behind her hair, shaking like a leaf, her voice impossible to read.

"She... She wants to meet with you." Kay said flatly.

Ethan felt his heart sink at those words, his instincts telling him that the other shoe was about to drop.

Ethan then felt something grip his hand tightly and realized that Josh had reached out from across the table and was now holding on to him.

Whatever else came, neither one of them would be facing it alone.

* * *

It seemed as though time had stopped, unto his dying day Ethan could have sworn that the dust in the air literally froze in midair, everyone's focus was on the lithe middle aged woman in the flowing earthen colored dress, her face completely buried in her hair.

Then she slowly raised her head and began to shake as she spoke, her normally dreamy eyes blazing twin stars, her lips pulled into a sneer.

"That… That… That woman! That BITCH has the FUCKING NERVE?!" Willow roared with a level of pure hatred that Ethan had never, ever seen come out of his mother in his _entire life._

Coyote tried to calm her down but she smacked his hand away and began to suck in labored breaths as she began to shake more violently, unable to articulate anything coherent, Willow let out an earsplitting scream containing _years_ of suppressed rage before sinking back into her chair like a marionette puppet who's strings were cut.

"Willow!" Coyote breathed before yelling her name more loudly as her head flopped to the side, obviously having passed out and rushed to help his wife.

* * *

Ethan looked around the room where he and the other kids had retreated, it was one of the many rooms in the Sloane's mansion, no doubt hardly ever used and just meant to look pretty.

He looked at the clock, only a few minutes had passed since his mother had completely lost it and fainted.

"It feels like hours…" Ethan unknowingly thought out loud, cutting through the dudgeon that had consumed everyone present.

"Yeah," Tom replied sounding exhausted, "I mean… Wow. I knew that there were problems between Grandma Haywood and your Mom Ethan but…" he then stopped talking, unable to finish whatever it was he was going to say.

"I don't even know much about them, the Haywood's." Ethan replied faintly, "Even after meeting you guys my parents don't talk about them much."

"Well we can tell you what we know… it's not much but's better than nothing." Tom offered very carefully.

"Sure." Ethan replied flatly, his eyes falling back on the expensive carpet in front of him, not completely sure if he could meet anyone's gaze at the moment.

"The Haywood's were a very prominent family in upstate New York, from what Mom says the family fortune was immense but slowly dwindling by her time." Tom began reciting the old family history.

"It's largely gone now," Elsie chimed in, "Uncle Mark made a series of bad business moves after Grandfather Haywood died, he lives with Grandma Haywood at the last major estate they own."

"Hardgarden?" Ethan asked and both Sloane kids shook their heads in the affirmative.

"It's in the Hamptons," Tom added, "But we've never been there ourselves… There was a falling out between Uncle Mark and Mom after he ruined the Haywood fortune and since he lives there..."

"She doesn't go there." Ethan finished for him.

"Yeah pretty much." Tom said flatly before rubbing his eyes, worn out from what had turned into a very draining evening.

"But one thing I don't get," Rex said from what felt like the sidelines, "Is how did the Haywood lady know to call here tonight?"

Tom and Elsie both noticed Ethan's eyes narrow in suspicion and they both said loudly, "Our mother did _not_ arraign for this!"

Everyone in the room winced at the force both Sloane's put in that statement, Ethan's bright green eyes went from growing suspicion back to weariness and he said very quietly, "I believe you."

After that no one was quite sure what to say, Daria leaned against Tom and he put an arm around her, Jamie asked Elsie in a whisper if she needed anything and she told him no, Josh gave Ethan another look of sympathetic comfort, while Rex began to pace out of nerves and Mack seemed to be at a loss of what to do.

Then Coyote and Angier both stepped in and the aging hippie simply said, "Ethan, Rex, we managed to get your mother awake and… She wants to go home now."

Ethan breathed a simple "Ok." While Rex suddenly stopped in mid-pace and his eyes went wide and he stammered out… "You… You called her my mom!"

Angier stared first at the burly football player and then at Coyote with curiosity while the graying older man seemed to be a bit shocked at himself before rallying with, "Yeah… Is there something wrong with it?"

"No…" Rex said firmly as a small hopeful smile formed on his face, "Nothing at all…"

* * *

Jamie White pulled up in front of the Morgendorffer residence and smiled at Daria Morgendorffer in her fabulous dress and snickered at something he thought of.

"What?" Daria asked with curiosity.

"It's just…" Jamie began before having to suppress a fit of silent giggles, "It's just that I always used to do stuff like this with Quinn, you know taking her to a fancy meal, waiting on her hand and foot, then bringing her home with barely a thank you."

"And now here I am again," Jamie then smiled and added, "Except it's with a different Morgendorffer."

Daria couldn't resist a small Mona Lisa smile at that, "Actually I could see why this is kind of funny to you, but this go around you have a different girl to wait on and… I have a feeling that she'll give you a lot more than a thank you."

Jamie grin grew much bigger at that, "Yeah that's true."

And that gave Daria a pretty big clue that things were moving along very swiftly between Elsie and Jamie but wasn't sure if she should tell Tom or avoid getting involved.

Her instincts told her to avoid involvement, a tactic that had served her oh so well in the past.

Jamie then asked her a question, "But what about you and Tom? How's that going?"

"Oh… Pretty good I guess." Daria replied with a slight blush, "I mean I don't know much… _Anything _really about dating but I… I feel right when I'm with Tom, you know?"

"Kinda," Jamie replied with understanding, "I feel like that with Elsie right now, it's how you know that the other person is worth something more than just… Well you know."

Daria wasn't completely sure how to respond to that, so she just nodded and said, "Thank you again for the ride Jamie."

"No problem," he replied kindly, "If you need a ride to something major like this again just let me know."

Daria nodded at that and stepped out of the car with a quiet, "Bye Jamie." And began to walk to the door.

Jamie lingered for a minute and watched Daria's retreating figure and thought to himself, "Tom's been very for her."

Then he sped away and filed away the image of Daria in that long black dress for plenty of reasons, but one of the purest was simply because it was the first time that he truly _noticed _her.

And not just for her looks, but because she reminded him of a butterfly that was coming out of a cocoon and was slowly getting ready to spread its wings.

* * *

The ride back home in the Yeager's Volvo was a silent one, Ethan glanced at the reflection in the passenger side window and noticed that even though his mother was leaning on it like she was sleeping, her eyes were wide open and never in his life had he seen them look so dead.

His dad had the merciful blessing of driving, which meant that he had a distraction, Ethan on the other hand was curled up against Josh and while they weren't doing anything, just being in physical contact was satisfying enough.

But after they dropped Josh off at his house since his mother was on one of her bonding kicks again, Ethan fell on an old habit.

He simply laid down on his side in the car and fell asleep until the Volvo pulled up in the driveway and his Dad shook him awake.

Fortuitously as the Yeager's reached the front door, Rex's truck pulled up next to the car and the newest addition to the family stepped out and bounded quickly to join them.

Once inside his parents retreated to their bedroom, clearly just wanting to change and go to bed, however the two boys just looked at each other for a long moment before Ethan smiled and asked, "Wanna get fucked up?"

"Yeah." Rex replied with his own worn out grin.

Once they were in E's little bubble of starkness and the joint lit up Rex managed to find the courage to ask the question that was now burning in his gut.

"Ethan," he said as the THC began to take effect, "Am I really one of you guys now?"

Ethan Yeager looked at Rex for a moment while inhaling the joint, taking in the tall, muscular kid with long reddish hair and chocolate colored eyes and said once he passed it back, "We took you in Rex so yeah, your one of us now, for better or for worse and a whole bunch of other serious words that I can't think of at the moment."

Rex laughed a little at that and said, "I… I've never had something like this before… A real family."

"You do now," Ethan said plainly, "And I've never had a brother before but I think you'll fit the bill man."

Rex took the chance to take a hit and exhaled and replied, "I… I don't know what to say except… Thank you, for everything."

"Don't mention it." Ethan replied with a sheepish grin as he took the joint back and took another puff before passing back again.

After they finished the joint, they spent the rest of the night telling stories to the other, revealing their secrets, their fears, and their desires.

Granted most of the details would be very hazy in the morning and they would have to repeat the ritual sober later, this was when Ethan and Rex would both say that they truly started to bond as brothers.

* * *

"Welcome to the land of the living Ethan," Rex said with a chipper happiness that only morning people can have.

Ethan on the other hand was stumbling out of bed at Noon and doing a very good imitation of a zombie in the process.

He muttered something and Rex just grinned while Ethan poured himself a cup of coffee leftover from his parents and proceeded to chug it.

Once Ethan sat down at the table across from him, Rex said, "Ok so now that you're more or less awake, here's the rundown for the day, the rents went into work early and I swung by the drug store for these."

Rex then sat down one of the magazines he had been reading and put it on top of a pile in front of him then shoved it across the table to Ethan.

"Those are those local advert magazines I told you about, once your brain is working I would suggest going through them a bit, oh and if you have any questions or whatever feel free to ask."

Ethan managed a small grunt that Rex decided to take as a 'thanks', before Ethan began to rub his eyes a bit.

"Ok then," Rex said to the barely functioning figure in front of him, "Well I'm meeting Mack for lunch so I'll see you later once you're operating on all cylinders."

Ethan gave a vague sort of grunt at that while Rex got up from the table and walked away, then his primal instincts caused him to rise from his seat for more life giving coffee.

* * *

"Yes Mom," Daria repeated for Helen's benefit as they sat in the living room together, "I've taken an internship at Grace, Sloane, and Page, I start bright and early tomorrow."

Daria couldn't help but let the hints of a smile emerge as her mother stuttered and stammered as her two most powerful instincts began to wage war with one another.

On one hand having Daria take the initiative to come up with a summer activity was a good thing in Helen's eyes, on the other hand she would be doing that internship with Tom Sloane, her boyfriend, and every scrap of her paranoia involving her precious daughters and sex was rearing it's ugly head, screaming that _this could not be_!

Daria waited for a few moments until her mother was just on the cusp of making a decision and chose that moment to tip the balance in her favor.

"Oh and Mom?" Daria asked innocently, "What is Quinn doing this summer?"

That did it, Helen's attention refocused on Daria as she realized that she had spent so much time (in between the surprisingly large work load during the summer months) to get Daria out of the house and doing something constructive that, well…

"Oh crap!" Helen thought out loud and then gasped and covered her mouth in embarrassment, "You didn't hear that Daria!" she said very loudly with her face turning red.

"I went deaf during those seconds and I didn't hear a thing." Daria said with a small smile.

Helen knew when she was beaten, "Ok so with this internship I can see all sorts of doors opening for you dear… As for Quinn…"

She sat still for a few minutes and began to think hard until a light bulb went off and she shot up off the couch and in a rush said, "Excuse me Daria I have to make a quick call."

Daria's smile just grew bigger and bigger as her Mother rushed out of the room to get her cellphone off the charger.

Quinn wouldn't know what hit her.

* * *

"Josh?" Jeffy said in recognition as the last person in line came up from behind the departing customer in front of him.

"Oh hey Jeffy," Josh replied in surprise as he approached the counter with his seemingly ritualistic purchase of new strings for his guitar.

"I heard that you started working here but I didn't quite believe it," Josh added with a small smile.

"Well believe it," Jeffy replied with his own grin as he began to ring him up, "I needed a summer job and since I'm getting into this stuff anyways, I figured, why not?"

"You're starting to play?" Josh asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Jeffy replied a little more excitedly, "I'm picking it up from Monique and her girls, I mean I'm just a beginner and all but I'm having a lot of fun!"

Josh just smiled at the enthusiasm, "I remember how excited I was when I first started out too man, we should do a jam session sometime."

Jeffy told him the price of the strings and then added, "That'd be cool man."

Josh paid the man and got his change and said, "Sweet."

For some reason Josh found himself wanting to linger for a minute as Jeffy gave him a rather large smile and later realized that he had been giving Jeffy a big smile right back.

"Well… Goodbye I guess." Josh said hurriedly as he grabbed the bag and turned tail and left.

"Bye…" Jeffy replied softly at the retreating figure and found himself admiring the kid's rear assets before shaking his head.

"Dude!" Jeffy told himself, "Get your mind out of the gutter."

For the rest of the day Jeffy couldn't shake that image out of his mind, no matter what he did to distract himself.

* * *

"Hey Evan if you don't mind my asking," Ed said to his new friend on the other side of the Larson's kitchen table, "You seem really blue, what's wrong?"

Evan looked up from his history book with a morose look on his face and replied, "Is it that obvious?"

Ed chanced a small smile and replied, "If I was legally blind I would have noticed."

"Ha ha," Evan retorted weakly, his heart clearly not in it.

He sat the book down and rubbed his forehead a bit, the headaches were getting a bit better but for some reason all the reading was starting to really hurt his eyes.

He then looked up at the nerd in front of him and said, "Well… I'm not sure you'd understand but me and Tori had a big fight last night."

"Tori's your girlfriend right?" Ed asked and when Evan nodded the kid grinned big and said, "You're so lucky man."

"Didn't feel so lucky last night." Evan replied before getting up to grab another soda from the fridge.

"Well what happened?" Ed asked with his curiosity piqued.

Evan came back with a couple sodas for the two of them and said, "Well it's… Weird."

Evan then sat down in the chair and pressed on, "I don't even remember how the fight started, but towards the end we were saying some pretty nasty stuff and then I stormed out."

He then laughed at himself bitterly, "I don't know if we'll make up, I hope so because the angry make up sex between us rules!"

Evan laughed at that and noticed that Ed blushed fiercely at that, which piqued his own curiosity.

"Say I never actually asked this but," Evan began as he cocked his head and looked at the kid, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No," Ed replied sadly, "Never actually did, and before you ask no I'm not gay it's just…"

"Never had the nerve to ask one out?" Evan concluded and Ed nodded at that in total humiliation.

Evan instantly smelled an opening and in a rare moment of brilliance asked, "Do you have one in mind?"

Ed nodded at that a bit more happily but added, "Yeah but I doubt she even knows I exist."

"Well who is it?" Evan asked and when Ed said the name Evan's mind began to think it over, which did bring the headache back.

He used the need to rub his forehead as a cover to hide his amusement as he thought, "Wow I have to admit that the kid's got good taste, but there's no way in hell that Brooke would date him."

Even as he said the part about Ed having good taste out loud, a thought occurred to him, "If I could at least arraign some sort of date for the kid with someone more,_ reasonable_. I'd have Ed 'the Head' right in my corner pocket, permanently."

He then realized something, that he had just made use of one of that day's vocab words, 'permanently' and couldn't help but wonder if the tutoring might actually be a good thing.

"Nah!" Evan thought to himself as Ed tried to pick back up with the day's history lesson, but every few minutes or so he would get a distant look in his eyes, no doubt day dreaming about a popular girl with a very pretty face that had recovered very well from her plastic surgery mishap.

* * *

"Excuse me girls," a very thick and heavy voice said from behind them, and when Brooke and Andrea both turned from their task of restocking the BBQ sauces they both had to suppress grimaces at what they were looking at.

A very heavy woman wearing, in public, a muumuu, house slippers, her hair lank and greasy, her eyes beady and black, and obviously not in the best of health.

"Could you tell me where the chocolate is?" she asked before coughing a little.

"Um…" was all that Andrea could come up with while feeling unusually self-conscious.

"Aisle 134-C!" Brooke replied sweetly, being of more use.

"Thank you!" the fat woman said in a grunting tone as she shuffled with a shocking level of speed away to her primary target.

Once she was out of earshot, both girls shuddered and Andrea said to her companion, "Brooke, look at me very carefully, am I anywhere near that bad?"

"Oh no, no, no no!" Brooke replied hurriedly, genuinely scared at the disturbed look on Andrea's face but was unable to resist adding, "But…"

"I'm not exactly a Waif model," Andrea concluded for her, "But I don't want to… you know."

"I know what you mean!" Brooke added in even faster than before, "If you want help to… You know… Lose a couple pounds then I'm here for you."

Andrea was quiet for a long moment before she said very quietly, "…Thanks."

"No prob." Brooke replied sweetly, glad that they were off the icky awkward vibe and getting back to normal.

Then she remembered that normal involved working in a hot and crowded dirty warehouse store.

"Ewww!" Brooke whispered to herself while they got back to restocking the shelves.

* * *

Ethan looked up from his reading materials as the front door opened and said, "Hey."

"Hey back," Rex replied as he came back into the Yeager's home with a spring in his step and Ethan couldn't resist asking.

"So how was lunch?"

Rex just grinned like a cat that ate a whole cage of canaries and simply said, "Good."

Ethan laughed at that, "And what about dessert?"

"A big bowl of chocolate ice cream." Rex said very seriously before they both busted up laughing.

"Ok I'll admit that was good." Ethan said once he got control of himself and added, "You are learning the way of sarcasm well young grasshopper."

Rex just grinned like a loon at that and sat down next his new brother and asked, "So how's the car shopping coming along?"

"Um…" Ethan breathed before admitting, "I have no idea what I'm doing!"

Rex's smile just grew bigger and he said very gently, "Okay, time to let the master help you."

First he asked Ethan what the price range he was looking at was, then after about half an hour of flipping through adverts, the pair narrowed down their choices to about four or five nice looking vehicles up for sale within the range of cash that Coyote Yeager had said he would be willing to pony up for Ethan's first car.

"We'll go look at them over the next day or so and get the best one out of the lot." Rex concluded and smiled at Ethan and added.

"Don't worry about it man, you're with me and if there's one thing I know all about, it's cars."

Ethan felt some of his anxiety melt away at that, but hoped to the God he didn't believe in that this would work out.

* * *

Ted Dewitt-Clinton swung into the Yeager's little shop and saw something that stopped him cold in his tracks.

"Well I didn't have much of a choice Mrs. Yeager." The high pitched voice of one Quinn Morgendorffer cut through his shock and his eyes took in the bizarre sight.

He took a couple brave steps into the building and headed towards the bongs to collect his purchase, he and Robert had been wanting a cooler looking one for a while but hadn't been able to settle on one until they had spotted a black and orange number that had been out of their price range at the time.

"Not anymore." Ted thought bravely but then turned around his brain tried to freeze again, not quite believing what he was witnessing.

"It's ok Quinn," Willow replied gently as they stood behind the register, "You'll be starting in a couple days, your role will be in the front of the store with the register and helping the local customers. Working in the back on the bulk orders for the online business was something your mother put her foot down on so…"

At that point Ted had heard enough, so he decided to just buy it and get out.

"I hope she doesn't recognize me." Ted thought as he approached the counter with his new bong.

Quinn looked at him curiously, thinking that he looked awfully familiar but her tiny little head couldn't quite make the connection.

Willow smiled and quietly stepped forward and rang him up and put the bong in a brown paper bag and wished him a nice day.

The instant Ted slipped out the door in very fast walk it clicked in Quinn's head.

"Oh my gawd!" she exclaimed, "I know him, he's like Robert's boyfriend, Ted something or other."

Willow sighed and said more seriously than before, "Quinn, one of the things you'll have to learn is that in this store we don't talk about the customers, nor do we gossip about who comes and goes, it's easier on everyone that way."

Quinn looked at Willow Yeager a bit funny at that, gossiping was nine-tenths of what High School was about.

"But it's summer I guess so a sabbatical could be in order." Quinn thought to herself as she glanced at the fashion don'ts in the store and realized she would be, in effect, enabling people to be unfashionable.

She tried to tell herself that the alternatives were worse, but she couldn't think of any at the moment.

* * *

"Ok Dad here are the ones that Rex thinks are the best buys," Ethan said to his father as they lounged in the living room together, Ethan then spread out the car magazine and began pointing at the ones that they circled.

"The Mazda, the Ford Probe, and the Camaro." Ethan said as he pointed at each of the three.

Coyote noticed that his son's finger lingered on the picture of the white Camaro but said nothing and instead made a big show of looking at each of the three.

"Why these three?" Coyote asked, "You seem to have circled more than that."

"Well we spent the morning going to the ones nearest to Lawndale and test drove… Oh god I lost count but we did a lot and Rex was really good at spotting problems and stuff. I mean I don't know much about cars myself but he said that these three would be the best considering the price range."

"Well which one do you like Ethan?" Coyote asked as he sat the magazine back on the coffee table.

"The Camaro," Ethan offered up with a small grin, "I know it's the most expensive of the three but, well…"

"It looks the coolest, am I right?" Coyote asked with a laugh and then laughed harder at the sheepish look on his son's face.

"Don't' sweat it son, remember your old man was a youngin' once too, I mean my first car was a Firebird… God that was a sweet ride."

"You had a Firebird?!" Ethan said with awe in his voice, even someone ignorant about cars knew about Firebirds.

"Yes I did." Coyote replied with pride, "It was my baby, and I couldn't tell you all the stories and adventures I had in it, not sure of the statute of limitations has worn out on some of them."

He then laughed again, "Well if your hearts set on the Camaro…" and then he grinned big at his son's enthusiastic head nodding, "Then we'll get the Camaro then."

"Thanks Dad!" Ethan cheered and got off the couch and gave his father a hug, "You're the best!"

Coyote just lapped up the praise and hugged his son right back while thinking, "The business is doing well, we've got plenty of cash, and the kid's earned a treat."

After they broke it up, Ethan went to the phone to call Josh and let him know about the good news and Coyote left the living room in good cheer.

First he checked on Rex, whom he found in his room, tacking up a poster of some football player, Coyote suppressed a grimace at that and asked if he needed a hand.

"Nah it's cool." Rex replied with a smile and Coyote took the hint and left.

Neither he nor Willow liked sports since it only encouraged violent behavior, but before either one of them had said anything about the subject to their new ward, Ethan had had a stern word with them about it.

"I don't want you guys giving him any crap about football," Ethan had said with unusual venom, "I know you don't like stuff like that, but it clearly means a lot to him and the last thing he needs right now is anyone trying to take away something that makes him happy."

It had turned out to be the wisest piece of advice they had been given on the subject.

"Though Ethan's gonna rock climb one day," Coyote thought to himself with a smile, "When he's ready of course."

Coyote then decided to check on his wife who was taking a nap, but when he opened the door to their bedroom he heard the sounds of sobbing.

He quickly slipped in and closed the door and curled up in bed next to his wife and asked, "What's wrong honey?"

In between sniffles, Willow managed to say, "I tried throwing myself into work to forget… It didn't work."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what could have set her off like this.

"It's ok honey," Coyote cooed and wrapped his arms around her, "You know what my family is like, right? My brothers and sister cut me out completely after my mom died, you don't have to deal with your Mom if you don't want to."

Willow's only answer to this was to cry some more before wheezing, "That's just it, I don't know what I want to do!"

Coyote shushed her and said, "Don't worry about it, you'll figure it out, when you're ready too."

He then pulled in closer and tighter to him and just held her until her sobbing quieted and her tears dried up.

* * *

Her brief internship with the now Ex-Congressman Sacks had given her a taste of the unpaid life of an intern.

Now as she finished making another pot of coffee she was back at it, except this time in the corporate world rather than the political.

Tom slipped into the break room and closed the door behind him as Daria was pouring herself a fresh cup and said, "Todays another beautiful day and here we are, trapped indoors with the lousy paperwork."

Daria smiled at his flippant and disinterested tone and took a sip and then replied, "But look on the bright side, your trapped in this mess with me this time."

"That's true," Tom replied with a smile and then poured himself a cup of coffee and added two sugars and one thing of cream, "Last year all I had for company was this weird Sci-Fi nerd who kept talking about the aliens who stole his skin."

Daria hid her shock well and asked, "How long did he last?"

Tom shrugged, "Just a couple days, he didn't show up one day and then called and said that the aliens hadn't let him come in, something about his dreams being stolen."

She laughed at that and replied, "How would you go about stealing a dream?"

"Or skin?" Tom replied with another question and they both enjoyed a hearty laugh and sat down at the table.

A nice sort of quiet fell between them, Daria and Tom just looked at each other and she felt her heart flutter at his small content smile.

"Tom…" Daria began more nervously, "I've been thinking about… You know… The sex thing."

"Yeah," Tom replied as normally as he could, not wanting to scare her off, "What about it?"

"Well…" Daria said with extreme apprehension, "Well I know I'm not ready, but…"

"But what?" Tom asked with a slight tilt of his head.

"I know that I'm curious and, well… I want to… experiment." The last was spoken as a whisper and her face turned quite red.

Tom did his best to hide his feeling of triumph and replied, "Well that's normal Daria, plus it will help you figure things out."

"…Thanks, I guess." Daria stammered while wishing that she was wearing her old coat so she could hide herself in it.

Tom allowed himself a smile at that, "So, when do you want to… you know…"

Daria took a very deep breath and glanced at the door first before saying, "Sooner rather than later, I don't want to lose my nerve."

"Cool," Tom replied, "We'll just do some sneaking around is all."

Daria gave an embarrassed grin at that, "Like any other pair of hormonal teenagers."

They both laughed at that one and Daria managed to come up with a joke, "But not here, obviously."

"Obviously." Tom replied and then added with a slight gleam, "But we can always make out in the supply closet."

"Yes," Daria replied more bravely, "Yes we can."

"So…" Tom began before Daria reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Yes…"

* * *

"So during Trafalgar…" Ed began but trailed off when he noticed that Evan was leaning his head down and rubbing his forehead again.

"What's wrong Evan?" Ed asked with concern, "I mean I know this is new material but it's not that hard."

"It's not that," Evan replied with a moan, "It's my eyes, they are throbbing like crazy and my head… God these headaches are getting worse."

Something in Ed's mind clicked and he recalled several instances when Evan was complaining about his eye's hurting after doing the reading, rubbing his forehead and the bridge of his nose, taking Tylenol for headaches, and sometimes using a finger to keep track of where he was on a page.

"Uh Evan," Ed said very carefully, "I don't want to upset you but… You might want to get your eyes checked."

"Huh?" Evan replied as he looked up and kept rubbing his forehead in a futile attempt to make the pain go away.

"I think you need to get your eyes checked." Ed repeated and when he was asked why he replied, "I think that you might need reading glasses."

"What?!" Evan replied, "No way man! My eyes have been perfectly fine for years."

"Well it would explain a lot," Ed said defensively, "And at the very least it could, you know, help figure out why it's happening."

Evan wanted to argue back at that but for some reason he couldn't find a way to articulate what he wanted to say so he just shrugged and said, "Whatever man."

Then in a desperate bid to change topics he asked, "So what about doing this stuff at your place Ed?"

"Huh?" Ed replied and shook his head in confusion.

"You know do the tutoring at your place," Evan repeated.

"Why would you want to do that?!" Ed replied in a panic.

"Well we're friends right?" Evan replied with cunning, "And besides I thought you might like having me come over rather than the other way around."

"Oh no it's fine," Ed replied very quickly, "I like coming over here, your parents place is cool."

Evan raised an eyebrow at that and thought, "Well it's a nice place but I've been in bigger and better."

Ed then grabbed the book and began to read out loud about the Battle of Trafalgar but Evan kept pondering Ed's strange reaction to his request to visit him at his place.

"Maybe during a run I can swing by and see what's up." Evan thought to himself while trying to follow along, "Cus I think I'm missing something here."

He would have to ask around to get Ed's address but it could be done without Ed finding out about it.

Then, he would try to figure out what was behind Ed's suddenly scaredy cat behavior.

* * *

"Ok I have to admit that I'm becoming fond of slasher flicks," Sandi said to her boyfriend as they sat in her living room with a bowl of popcorn, "But I still can't watch them at night."

"Scardey cat!" Stephen teased in between bites of handfuls of popcorn.

"Yup," Sandi admitted without shame, "Just don't tell anyone about it."

"I swear on my honor as a boy scout!" he teased as he held up his hand and made a sign.

"That's the Vulcan one!" Sandi whined and then they both laughed and then laughed even harder at the B-Grade movie on the TV screen.

Sandi grabbed some more popcorn and munched away, glad that the first meeting with his brothers had gone over better than the first meeting with his parents.

"At least they didn't judge me with that snobby attitude," Sandi thought to herself, "But maybe I deserved it cus that's probably how I used to treat people."

Stephen in the meanwhile was enjoying the movie and relieved that she hadn't heard some of the stuff that Harold had said out of ear shot.

"I don't care if Sandi has a million dollars or is dead flat broke," Stephen thought to himself once more, "She's an awesome girl and Harold is dead flat wrong, she's not a gold digger and she's not a slut. I know for a fact I'm the only guy she's ever been with, sure her family's a little screwy but ours isn't exactly a Norman Rockwell painting either."

Granted his first meeting with Sandi's hellions for brothers had been a little unnerving, but the little rascals had warmed up to him, he thought.

"Her Dad's a hot mess though," Stephen thought with bemusement at his relationship antics, "I mean how many people have to get their mistress to plan the funeral of their wife?"

Between that and that other character, Wind Lane, Stephen hoped against all hope that it would work out for them.

"Because my Alessandria deserves a stable home life." Stephen thought and then drank some more of his Ultra Cola.

Then they both laughed at the antics of the killer, the film had reached narm territory after the so-called 'serious scene' had become quite comical.

Even though it was noon, there was nothing better than being inside right now with a bad movie, good popcorn, and the perfect company to share it with.

* * *

Ethan smiled as Josh opened his bedroom window, in case they wound up lighting up and said, "I thought you wanted to be serious and junk."

Josh grinned at that, "Yeah but after the seriousness, comes the fucked upness."

Ethan shrugged, "Yeah that sounds about right but what about your Mom?"

"She's out doing grocery shopping, she won't be back for a while."

Ethan smiled at that and pulled out the dime bag he had brought with him while Josh pulled out a bong from underneath his bed and they began to set things up.

During that however Ethan asked, "Is she still on that parenting kick?"

"Yeah," Josh replied and then added, "Normally she'd be off of it by now."

Ethan leaned back and took in his gorgeous blond boyfriend and replied, "Maybe she's serious about this kick."

Josh snorted, "I've heard that before and she always winds up falling back in the old pattern, throwing herself into her work to avoid the whole 'guilt thing'."

"Guilt thing?" Ethan asked in confusion.

Josh looked up at him and said, "Don't you remember what I told you about my Dad?"

"Yeah," Ethan replied treading carefully, "But what does…? Oh." It clicked.

Josh sighed, "She still feels rotten about everything that happened, both to her and to me. So rather than deal with it she became a workaholic."

Josh then began to load up the bong, "She put everything into making that time management company of hers work. It let her forget everything that went wrong… Avoid dealing with it… Dealing with me."

At that Josh felt his eyes well up and fought hard to avoid making a scene himself and finished loading up the bong and pulled out a lighter.

"And this is how I'm going to avoid dealing with it, for now at least."

"Josh…" Ethan began before words failed him, he was paralyzed as Josh light up the bong and took a hit.

Then he reached out and hugged his man, for a second Josh was confused but then he melted and returned Ethan's hug and they held each other for a long moment before Josh passed the bong to Ethan and he took a hit of his own, not wanting to be the odd one out.

* * *

Tom and Daria walked into the Pizza Prince that was an unofficial fixture of the Lawndale High set and found their usual table occupied by Jane Lane and an unusual guest.

A blue haired punk with piercings, tattoos, ragged clothes, and a bemused look.

"Hi Jane, Bob." Daria said and then asked, "What's going on?"

Jane smiled, "Daria, I'd like you to meet my new boyfriend, Bob Sorenson, Bob this is Daria, and next to her is her man, Thomas Sloane."

"Just Tom, thanks." Tom answered with a slight sardonic smile directed at Jane.

"This is… unexpected." Daria said as she sat down next to her friend and Tom sat down next to Bob, who noted that Tom seemed perfectly at ease around him.

"Yeah, I thought the same." Jane replied and then related the story about how she met him.

"Then after going to Joe's Diner and watching Morty the Schizo in action we just kind of clicked." Jane concluded and Bob smiled at that.

"Granted we had to deal with Kylie afterward but Bob broke that off, right?" Jane added the last word with a dangerous growl and Bob reassured her that he and Kylie were complete and total history.

Daria smiled at that, but was still a bit worried, "I hope that Jane knows what's she doing." Daria thought to herself but kept her own council.

Aloud however she and Tom regaled them with tales from Grace, Sloane, and Page, minus their conversation about S-E-X of course.

"So when we went to our usual supply closet we found Mr. Page in there with his secretary, who was three decades younger and very much not his wife." Tom finished with an amused snort.

"But they figured what we were going to be up too so we agreed not to talk about it." Daria added.

"But you told us so that deal is kaput." Bob noted with a slight grin.

"I'm sure the commoners don't count," Jane said but her amusement took the sting off.

"Jane if you and Bob are common I'd hate to meet the unusual people." Tom replied with irony.

It was during this conversation that Daria managed to whisper to him, "Remember what I said, as soon as possible."

"Yes' ma'am." He whispered right back with a very amused smile.

Jane and Bob both noticed the whispered and while they didn't know exactly what was said, the gist was obvious.

"I think someone's getting laid soon." Bob thought with a cheer for the posh boy, he and Daria both looked like they could use an old fashioned roll in the hay.

Jane in the meanwhile was already plotting some merciless teasing but just between her and Daria, since it worked out better that way.

* * *

Evan was pushing himself hard as he ran down the unfamiliar streets, the wind in his hair, his lungs sucking down oxygen in a good rhythm, his body humming along as he flew on his feet.

After talking with Tori on the phone and the whole bloody thing turned into another argument, he had thrown on some running clothes and shoes and just bolted out the door.

He had been running for what felt like forever, trying to leave it all behind, and failing miserably in the process.

Now he was doing something productive to try and escape thinking about how everything was going south.

He was looking for Ed's house.

It had only taken a little digging to get the address and since it would mean a pretty good long run, Evan had decided, why the hell not?

But when he came within a block of the address something emerged from a corner that stopped him dead in his tracks.

Ed Parker himself rounded it, walking away at a fast pace with a bag over his shoulders, tears streaming down his face.

Then he noticed Evan, panting in a pair of shorts and a tank top, sweat dripping down his entire body and just froze.

Neither one of them said anything for a long time until Ed seemed to slump into himself and felt a new wave of tears fall down his face.

"What… What happened?" Evan asked as he came over to Ed as the kid sat down on the pavement and knelt down next to him.

"My parents are fighting again." Ed said hoarsely, "I thought they'd run out of steam but…"

He then shrugged, "It just got worse."

Evan was speechless, never in his life had something remotely like this ever been on his radar, let alone happening to someone he knew of.

Ed then wiped his face with a dirty shirt sleeve, "When it gets bad like this I go to the shelter and stay for a night or two."

Ed then fought back more tears and fessed up with, "I used to run off, days sometimes weeks at a time but one time I ran away for so long that the cops declared me a missing person."

Ed laughed very hollowly, "My face is still on milk cartons because of that one."

But the laughter fell apart into a new wave of tears and Evan finally reacted, he got in closer and gave the kid a hug.

Granted it was a bit awkward at first but when Ed clung to him like a rock, Evan gave him a more firm grip and helped him on his feet.

"So you were going to the shelter?" Evan asked quietly, even while he felt the guilt monster rise up inside him, assaulted him with every single contemptuous thing he had ever thought of about Ed 'the Head' Parker.

Ed sniffled but said very weakly, "Yeah…"

Evan instantly thought of what he hoped was a better idea, "Why not just stay with me?"

"What… You mean at your place?" Ed asked in surprise, not daring to let hope take him down a primrose path to disappointment, "What about your parents?"

"What about them?" Evan replied kindly as he began to walk with Ed down the street, "I've had friends over before so this isn't any different."

Ed repeated to himself, "Friends…"

"Yeah Ed," Evan replied softly, "Friends."

It was going to be a long walk back to his place, but a walk worth taking as far as Evan was concerned.

Because it was helping to make that guilty feeling go away.

* * *

The song 'No Rain' by Blind Melon blared out of the radio as Ethan Yeager drove his new white 1988 Camaro through Lawndale, he had an unusually large smile plastered across his face and he sang along to some of the lyrics.

He had just dropped his dad off back at the storefront with a much lighter wallet, but had been told not to sweat it.

"You only get your first car once Ethan," Coyote had said with a wistful smile, "We can afford it."

Now he had a new destination in mind, Josh's house.

It didn't take long to get there and pull up in the drive way and he bounded to the door with a snap in his step and rang the bell.

But it was answered by someone he had rarely seen around the house, Deena Decker.

"Hello Ethan." She said with a smile, "Is that car yours?" she asked as she craned her neck around the doorway to see the vehicle.

"Yes Ma'am!" Ethan replied with that smile still firmly fixed on his face.

Deena smiled just as her son came up from behind her and having heard slipped through them both and took one look at the Camaro and went, "Whoa cool man!"

"I know right?" Ethan replied as he slid next to Josh to stand at his side, "My Dad bought it for me… Oh a few minutes ago."

"Sweet man!" Josh replied with happiness and then asked, "Can I take a ride?"

"Sure man." Ethan said with pride before glancing at Josh's mom who nodded in full approval.

"You two have fun." She said motherly joy and neither one of them needed anything more, they both climbed into the car and quickly sped away with the best of Blind Melon as the soundtrack of the day.

"Dude this car is freakin' awesome!" Josh cheered while feeling the wind blow through his fingers as he held a hand out of the window.

"I know man," Ethan yelled in the reply over the engine and the music, "It kicks ass!"

"So what are we gonna do?" Josh asked as Ethan drove in no particular direction.

"We're meeting the others at Pizza Prince later to plan our road trip to 'Rock A Phial'," Ethan replied, "But for now I'm thinkin'… We cruise around for a bit and then… Find a shady spot and break this baby in."

"…Awww yeah!" Josh answered while letting his other hand find its way to Ethan's exposed thigh and teased him a little.

"Hey stop it!" Ethan said with a slight giggle, "You'll cause a wreck like that!"

"Sorry." Josh replied obviously not sorry at all as Ethan wove his way through the suburb jungle of Lawndale with no particular destination in mind except some place out of the way and quiet.

And considering that it was the middle of the day it might take a bit to find one.

* * *

"Wooooohhhhhh!" Roared Elsie Sloane in a very undignified manner as she and the only other girl in the class wove their practice 250 motorcycles through the course with the instructor watching on with pride, glad that they were taking to it so quickly only a few days in.

"THIS ROCKS!" Stacy Rowe bellowed over the noise of her borrowed machine.

The older and slightly pudgy biker who was serving as the instructor that day was keeping an eye on those two would-be daredevils, he only needed to keep them from attempting stunts outside of their current skill set.

The others in the course needed more 'hand's on' help.

In that meanwhile, two of the boys taking the class, Jamie White and Joey Black were doing ok, but had a long way to go to reach the levels that Elsie and Stacy were already at.

"No fair man!" Joey pouted to himself and feeling a little unmanned, "They like, have a natural knack for this."

Jamie on the other hand was doing his best to take it in stride, "God my girlfriend rocks man! I don't deserve her but damn it all I'm enjoying this!"

Jeffy on the other hand was struggling not to kill the bike every few minutes, he was having a rough time of it that day and the stress was clearly getting to him.

He gritted his teeth and growled, "Start goddammit!" and went through the checks in his head, give it some gas and slowly let the clutch out to get it going but wound up killing it again.

"ARRRAARRRGH!" he growled through his aching clenched jaw, this was seriously pissing him off.

"Mr. Grey!" the Instructor snapped coming up to him, "Take five kid, cool off a bit in the shade, then come back and try it again."

"Fine." Jeffy growled in reply while glaring at the innocent motorcycle like it was at fault and stalked off.

A few minutes later while sitting under the shade of the only tree near the vacant lot where they were doing the course, the Instructor came up to him and said kindly, "Look, I think you're a good kid and all but you can't let yourself get mad like that, that's when you'll make mistakes and hurt yourself, or others."

Jeffy sighed, soaked in sweat and a small smear of dirt on his face and said he was calmed down.

The instructor then asked, "You can try again… But I do have a question, are you sure you want to learn this?"

"Well yeah!" Jeffy replied with some enthusiasm coming back into his voice.

"Then keep that temper in check kid," the Instructor replied with a rare smile on his grizzled face.

Jeffy shook his head firmly in acknowledgement and did a good gridiron, "Yeah!" and jumped back up with his helmet in hand and bounded off to the bike, determined to mix it up and at the very least not kill it again that day.

* * *

Evan opened his front door after hearing the knock and was surprised at who was there, "Oh hey Tori, wasn't expecting to see you here today."

"I know." She replied flatly and then let herself in but once she saw who was currently asleep on the Larson's couch she did a double take and asked, "What's the Head doing here?"

Evan flatly replied, "It's a long story, so why'd you come?"

Tori recognized a subject change and even though she was curious about this unexpected development she let it slide and replied, "I wanted to talk face to face… Can we go somewhere quiet?"

Evan raised an eyebrow at that until his mind caught on to what she meant, "Oh sure, back yard will work I guess."

"Cool." Tori replied very flatly and then followed him through the Larson's house and out the patio door and onto the wooden deck and took a seat opposite of him at the built in picnic table near the grill.

"So here we are," Evan said suddenly sounding very tired, "Are we going to fight, fuck, make up, or some combo of the three?"

Tori seemed quite downcast and replied, "I don't know, I mean I know I care about you Evan it's just… Are we right for each other?"

"Huh?"

Tori suppressed a sigh at that one, not surprised that he hadn't done a whole lot of hard thinking about their relationship.

But she pressed forward with, "I've been thinking about you and me, and, well… I thought I loved you at one point but I feel like this whole thing was about hormones and playing the popularity game at school."

It was Evan's turn to look blue and he thought about his reply for a minute but wound up babbling a bit, "Tori, I had a lot of fun with you but I don't know when it suddenly turned sour and junk but… I was hoping that we could just make up and go back to the way things were, ya know."

"I don't think that's possible Evan," she replied sadly, "The beginning was lots of passion but after that… What do we really have in common?"

"Not much." Slipped out of Evan's mouth before he could hold it in and it was too late to take it back.

Tori smiled a little at his discomfort at that, "Yeah, sounds about right… Maybe we should take a break you know."

"You mean break up, right?" Evan asked even though he knew what the answer to that would be."

"…Yeah, but I'd still like to be friends thought." Tori replied with the standard words used by every girl who broke up with a guy and tried to soften the blow.

Evan sighed and rubbed his throbbing eyes, hoping that it wasn't going to be taken as wiping away tears, "Friends… Sounds good I guess… But I'm sorry about the fighting and stuff Tori, I don't remember how it got started but… I'm sorry." He offered up lamely, it was all that he could do at that point.

"I am too Evan," she replied sadly with tears starting to well up, but she fought them back since it would ruin her makeup.

"So… This is it then." Evan said with finality.

"Yeah…" was all she could come up with in reply as she stood up, but then leaned over and kissed him briefly.

Even Evan realized that it was a kiss of goodbye.

"See you around Evan," Tori said softly as she turned to go, but over her shoulder she said, "And I meant it about being friends, you've grown up a little and I'd like to see how you turn out."

Evan could only whisper, "Goodbye Tori." As she walked through the patio and let herself off of the property.

He buried his face in his hands but he didn't cry, he just sat in silence with his mind a jumble.

It wasn't until Ed came out looking for him that he began to respond to outside stimuli.

* * *

As the torture tape finally reached its end, Andrea collapsed on the floor panting, her heart pounding away in her chest at a hundred miles an hour, her skin quite red and soaked in sweat.

Brooke on the other hand was still bouncing around the room, full of energy, Andrea hated her so much at that moment it was borderline illegal.

"Wasn't that fun?!" Brooke cheered with a big smile in her workout clothes, "I love Dancerobics!"

"I need…" Andrea wheezed, "A drink…"

Brooke took pity on her charge and tossed her a bottle of water as the Goth girl pulled herself up to a sitting position and took it gratefully and with a big gulp chugged a third of it in one go.

Under Brooke Tanner's direction, Andrea Hebuca had been doing Dancerobics at her house five times a week, or whenever their work schedules would allow for it.

While also introducing some big changes in her diet and daily routine, all of which had cut out the bulk of the foods she loved and replaced them with, well…

"Rabbit food." Andrea had thought to herself with a sneer.

Her little brother Damien in the meanwhile had discovered the joys of tormenting his older sister with sugary sodas, pizzas, chocolate bars, and a whole host of other fatty good foods whenever she was in his presence.

"The bastard!" She sneered to herself, wishing that O'Neill's stupid camp hadn't fallen through, "Cus it would get that bastard out of the house and away from me for a good chunk of the summer."

But after the whole Barch thing, Mr. Sensitive had gone into therapy to 're-find himself' that summer with a promise of doing his "Ok to Cry Coral" next summer.

Which didn't help Andrea Hebuca one bit as Brooke sat down next to her and said, "You're doing better Andrea, pretty soon you'll be dancing away all night long like I can."

"Just as long as it doesn't involve a crappy night club then I'm good." Andrea said having caught her breath.

Brooke grinned at that, "How's about a deal? I take you to a club, but one that we both agree on, deal?"

Andrea smiled darkly at that, "Deal." And shook on it.

Knowing that due to their wildly divergent tastes in music that it would never happen.

* * *

"About the Tori thing…" Ed began to ask very carefully while sitting with Evan in his bedroom with some music on.

"I'm not ready to talk about that." Evan replied quietly, his eyes a bit dull.

"Oh ok then," Ed said softly, "But when you are, I'll listen, even if I don't know much about this stuff. I can do that much."

Evan smiled very faintly at that, "Thanks for that… Bro."

Ed beamed at that like he had been given a thousand bucks for nothing.

That smile made Evan feel a tiny bit better about himself, "Ed's a bro now."

Next to him, Ed noticed that his first real friend seemed a bit less miserable and hoped that he was getting out of his funk.

"Even I could see this coming from a mile away," Ed thought to himself, "Besides Tori just wasn't right for him… He'll do better with someone else."

They just sat there talking quietly while listening to music for a long while, just chilling and letting time slow to a crawl.

The world could spin on by with its petty problems and leave them alone for at least a little bit, and it did.

* * *

Quinn had discovered some stuff right off the bat about her job, she was actually rather good at the whole 'sales' stuff.

Granted she was just running the register and stuff, but all the prices were listed and with the bar scanner all she had to do was just swipe it, let the computer do its thing, then dish out the price and deal with change if there was any.

If anything went wrong, she just pushed the button under the counter and either Willow or Coyote would come out and sort it out.

"Even though they run an ordering business, they also run the open store in Lawndale for the locals and stuff." Quinn reminded herself, having seen the very large back of the store which was dedicated to the shipping and manufacturing aspects of the business.

They grew the type of marijuana that was of a grade for hemp fibers and while they had special rules and regulations attached to it, none of it was fit to smoke apparently.

"Or so the guys who deal with it told me," Quinn thought to herself idly during a slow period, "For some reason I think they think that I was curious about that, but I don't do drugs, those are for, like losers."

And she wasn't a loser, she was the President of the Style Girls Club and the most popular girl in Lawndale.

Feeling a bit bored, she decided to check on her bosses since for some reason Willow had been crying.

She slipped through the doors and followed the familiar path through the corridors to the Yeager's main office but before she knocked she could hear Willow on the phone.

"…So that's the short and skinny of it Helen."

Quinn was curious as to why she was talking to her mom and decided to listen in.

"I know you have a hard time relating to your Mother so I knew you'd understand my… problems."

Quinn heard Willow sigh and then add, "Well maybe your right, facing this head on would, if nothing else bring me some closure."

"I'll set it up… But due to my schedule I'll have to see them during Labor Day weekend… I… I'm not sure if I want to subject them to that… I… I promise I'll think about it… Thanks Helen, bye!"

Hearing that, Quinn knew to scurry back to her post at the counter, hoping that no one had come in in the interval.

Thankfully when she did come back there were a couple people in the store, but they had just come in so they wouldn't have had time to cause trouble.

"God work is like, hard and stuff." Quinn pouted to herself even while pulling out her compact to check her makeup.

She couldn't afford any mishaps, even in an unfashionable place like this.

"Someone has to have some standards." She thought for the millionth time and pondered on one of her fondest wishes.

Giving Ethan a makeover.

* * *

Ethan grinned at the massive takeover of tables at the Pizza Prince, seated around the ad hoc war council was himself, Josh, Daria and Tom fresh off of work, Jane and Bob getting quite cozy, Rex and Mack, Elsie and Jamie, Stacy and Joey the last four of whom were still in their biker gear, Robert and Ted who had found out from Ethan and were interested, and bringing up the rear was Trent Lane and the other members of Mystik Spiral.

The discussion was long and arduous, much pizza was consumed and many sodas were drunk, but in the end they determined that with Ethan's Camaro, Rex's Chevy truck, Robert's Mustang, Tom's Jaguar, Elsie's Corvette convertible, and Jamie's Jeep they had just enough space to get everyone there.

The Tank and Trent's blue bomb weren't up for consideration due to the fact that they were fire hazards when they were sitting still, much less in motion.

Then they sorted through the map to Heavensport and after much discussion the meeting was brought to a close, but Bob made the brilliant observation that, "If anyone else wants to come, we'll have to warn them to either bring their own car or get someone who has a ride to take them with."

"Good point Bob," Ethan said as the unofficial chair of the meeting, "Ok so we have a plan, after the fourth we'll be on our way to Rock A Phial."

"Let's just hope that it doesn't suck like Alternapalooza." Trent observed in between the last slice of mushroom and sausage pizza.

"We didn't make it to Alternapalooza, don't you remember?" Jane asked and Trent smiled at that.

"Oh yeah…" he drawled and Daria and Jane both just shook their heads.

"Ok now that _that's _sorted." Ethan interjected, "We've got a plan, let's just, you know, do it!"

It was agreed by everyone present and they toasted to it with the remnants of their demolished meal.

Off to the side, the waitresses of Pizza Prince prayed to God that those kids wouldn't order anything else because they were all about to drop dead from exhaustion.

* * *

Jodie Landon smiled at her reflection in a mirror, she was wearing some fly gear and was heading off to a hip-hop club in Baltimore to party her ass off that night.

Her summer was going great, her parents had learned the hard way to back off on the crazy stuff they used to force her to do during the summer.

"This is the first summer I've had all to myself," Jodie said to herself in the looking glass, "And it's great!"

She then felt good about her appearance and headed on out, determined to have fun and maybe have a random hookup.

She hadn't dated anyone seriously since Mack, she didn't want to be tied down, she just wanted to have some fun.

God knows she'd earned it.

* * *

Mack Mackenzine hoped that the concert would be a lot of fun, because he knew that on the horizon loomed the trial involving his dad.

"And Rex's parents as well," he reminded himself, "At least my Mom squeezed a divorce out of him before… Well maybe he'll cop a plea and I won't' have to testify."

That was what the DA's office had said was the most likely outcome, even more so with Rex's parents.

"Who knows what Barch will do once she's on trial." Mack thought with a laugh, "Probably try to kill the judge or something…"

Who'd have thought that their science teacher would be willing to go that far?

"…Wait what are you saying to yourself Michael Jordan Mackenzie?!" Mack said to himself, "Its Barch, she's as crazy as a monkey on a trike, it's only shocking that she hadn't killed the guy years ago."

He then laid back down on his bed in his room, wishing that Rex could be there with him but his Mom said she didn't want to hear any hanky panky through the thin walls of their home.

Mack hoped that she would start dating at some point, put all this behind her, but thought it might be awhile before she was ready to do it.

"In the meanwhile she'll just have to live vicariously through me and Rex." He thought with a mental laugh as he felt sleep claim him.

* * *

Rex was tying knots, making sure that the equipment was secure while Mack was already in his truck double checking the batteries of their walkie-talkie.

It was very early in the morning and everyone who was going to Rock A Phial was finishing up the last minute tasks that needed to be done.

The snacks, clothes, booze (cleverly hidden in a cooler surrounded by other bags), tents, blankets, and other assorted essentials were loaded, the camp site booked for their time there.

In his new Camaro, Ethan glanced at Josh and smiled, "The word seems to have spread."

"Yeah," Josh replied with a smirk, "But I suspected that Jeffy and Monique would find out and decide to tag along."

"True enough," said Trent Lane from the back of the car along with Jesse who was snoozing at his side, then when Jesse's head flopped onto his shoulder had to rearrange his friend in his seat.

Ethan just grinned and put his head out of the driver's side window, Jamie's jeep was also pack with some of the overflow, there was enough space for himself Joey and Stacy, but thankfully Elsie had brought her own car and had taken on Bob and Jane as passengers.

He looked forward and caught a glimpse of Tom's Jaguar and saw Daria step in carrying two sodas for the road.

Ethan then asked the guys about Nick and Max and Trent said he thought that Max was riding with Robert and Ted and that Nick was in Tom's Jag.

"Oh and I think they said that some other people would tag along." Trent added with a thicker drawl than usual.

"Who?" Josh asked but sighed as Trent's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out.

"Figures." Ethan stated and smiled when Josh giggled at that.

"Well I guess we will never know…" Josh began to say before he was cut off by the sounds of a very loud engine as a red Corvette pulled up in front of Bob's place where they had all agreed to congregate and do the final prep work for the trip.

Ethan stepped out his car and yelled out, "Yo Steve! What's up?"

The driver's side window came down and Ethan's other preppy friend from Fielding yelled back, "Pope told me about the concert and when I mentioned it to Sandi we both thought it would be a cool thing to do, it was very last minute but I'm sure we've got everything."

"Cool." Ethan replied, "You have a walkie-talkie right?"

"Pope gave me one," Stephen replied and held up the instrument as if it was some strange alien object, "Not sure why…"

"It's so we can all talk to each other while on the road," Ethan replied and smiled when Stephen said, "Cool!"

Ethan then told him the frequency and got into his car and Josh tossed him his walkie-talkie and checked the clock in his car and switched it on.

"Is everyone ready?!" He bellowed like an announcer at a boxing match.

"Yes Sir!" Robert replied from his blue Mustang.

"Roger that." Jamie stated from the Jeep.

"Oh yes!" Monique answered from _her _Mustang.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Elsie replied from _her_ blue Corvette.

"Roger roger," Tom snarked from the Jag.

"We're ready to go!" Rex sounded off from his truck.

"Let's go!" Stephen said from his red Corvette.

"And I'm ready." Ethan said into the mini-radio and laughed, "Let's hit the road!"

* * *

The wind was blowing through the windows, the best of Rush was blaring through the car radio and for some reason Ethan's Camaro was the lead car in the pack and Josh was navigating with a map they had highlighted the routes with, it was thankfully fairly straight forward since it was almost all highways but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Especially considering that none of them had ever _been_ to Heavensport before.

The first couple of hours went by without a hitch, they found the first rest stop without any problems, to which the truckers present couldn't help but stare at the onslaught of teenagers as the place went from mellow and quiet to energetic and boisterous in a matter of seconds.

Breakfast consisted of whatever was in the vending machines.

While Mack scarfed down a candy bar, Rex nibbled on a small packet of mini-doughnuts.

"EEEEEE!" Elsie squealed when her Ultra Cola Lite turned out to have been shaken up a bit and started to explode the second she opened it and sat it down on the picnic table and backed away very quickly.

Jamie grabbed some napkins and spent some time helping her clean up before giving her his soda and finishing off what was left of hers instead.

Robert and Jesse were trying to hold a conversation but all Jesse could come up with was, "Yeah," and "Cool," while Robert struggled to remember where he was in the thread.

Ted just smiled at this and decided to spare them anymore confusion and planted a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek to distract him and asked in a whisper if they could slip into his car for a little 'private' time.

But their time there had to be wrapped up quickly so they could get back on the road, Ethan and Josh found Trent still asleep in the car and placed an Ultra Cola next to him for if and when he woke up.

* * *

Jamie whispered into his walkie-talkie, "…And remember that time when we were in your parent's study and we had to tell the maid that I was tying my shoe."

Elsie giggled into her radio, "Yeah… But I'm pretty sure that she thought _something _was up considering your head was position right up my skirt…"

"ELSIE!" Tom roared into _his _walkie-talkie, "If you two are going to talk like that, at least do it on a PRIVATE CHANNEL!"

Two distinct "Eeps!" could be heard before two very humiliated teens retroactively checked their radios and found a private band to continue their verbal, 'naughty time'.

It didn't help that the last things that they heard for a while in their ears was the collective laughter of everyone else.

* * *

"I didn't know you liked country music." Rex said in surprise since he had been channel surfing and Mack had told him to stop once they landed on a station playing "Blue Suede Shoes".

"It's a guilty pleasure." Mack replied and then added, "But if anyone finds out they'll take away my ghetto pass."

"Don't worry babe," Rex teased, "Your secret's safe with me."

He then turned it up.

* * *

"Hey who's hungry?!" Ted asked through the line and after getting a lot of yeses he then asked Ethan if he saw any places to eat up ahead.

"There's a diner about a mile from here." Daria answered and then a distinct, "What?" could be heard from her as she answered someone in the background.

"It's a long story." Jane said through Elsie's walkie-talkie.

They had been on the road for a while now and the unsuspecting patrons of the roadside diner, what was the name again? It doesn't matter.

Daria and Jane exchanged smiles as a familiar smart mouthed waitress took one look at group of _over twenty people_, promptly swung her head to the kitchen and yelled, "We've got a Code Rock-apocalypse! This is NOT A DRILL!"

The screams of horror from the kitchen were music to Daria's ears.

* * *

After everyone had been fed, and that had taken a while considering that twenty or so kids equaled twenty different orders to be filled, the bathrooms had been used and abused, the waiting staff quite shell-shocked and gibbering a little in the aftermath, and a small mountain of dishes to be washed with the bills settled and the cash and tips left on the table (Tom had double-checked to make sure that they had all left generous tips).

The road took another sucker punch as they all hit it again.

* * *

Daria was taking a short nap and Nick felt that now was a good a time as any to give Tom what he had picked up at a certain type of vending machine at the rest stop earlier.

"Not sure if you two are doing the nasty yet," Nick said with a sly grin as he gave Tom a certain type of birth control for dudes, "But just in case."

"Uh… Thanks I guess." Tom managed to stammer in embarrassment while using his free hand to slip it into his wallet.

"Don't mention it," Nick replied with a snicker, "I was a teenager once and if I had thought about it, I wouldn't be making child support payments now."

"…Good point." Tom admitted and put his wallet back in his pocket.

* * *

"I wish we could have ridden our hogs." Stacy fumed, already the itch to fly down the highway on her motorcycle was deep in her blood.

"Stacey," Joey replied apologetically, "You know that you're still a newbie, neither one of us is ready for a trek like that."

"I guess." She fumed and flopped back into her seat and Joey put an arm around her and patted her back.

"Besides I doubt we could have taken all this stuff with us on our bikes." Joey added and was glad that she laughed a little at that.

Jamie in the meanwhile was in the front and smiled and shook his head while thinking, "I wonder if Elsie and me will be like that?"

He hoped so.

* * *

Sadly the convoy was stalled when traffic got very heavy and ground to a halt since there had been a car wreck at an intersection.

It took about an hour for it to be cleared up.

During which time quite a few people were forced to make use of the nearby woods as a porta-potty.

Daria was not among them, but she did warn Tom about the squirrel perverts that awaited him.

"Great…" he muttered, "You should hear my Dad rant about those rats, they broke in our wine cellar again and ate all the wheat thins."

"What?!" Nick and Daria both exclaimed but Tom was already out the door.

Thankfully he got back just as traffic started to let up.

* * *

They reached the next rest stop without any major incidents, while most of them didn't need to go to the bathroom, the road had started to become a bit blurry for the drivers.

So yet another rest stop was invaded by a massive hoard of near-barbarians, Rex and Mack were singing Johnny Cash songs (off-key), Jeffy and the Three J's had found each other and between them and Elsie and Stacy were chatting up a storm about motorcycles.

Daria and Tom were trying to find a quiet spot in vain while Bob and Jane had slipped back into Elsie's Corvette to make out for a bit.

Sandi in the meanwhile had brought a boom box and Judas Priest was the soundtrack of this stop and she and Steve were rocking out.

While Max and Nick were having yet another 'creative disagreement', Trent and Monique found themselves alone together in the small corner with the vending machines, both with a hankering for cheap snacks.

"Uh… Hey Monique." Trent said nervously while shuffling his feet.

"Hey." Monique replied quietly.

They both struggled for something to say before Trent came up with the brilliant, "So… Are we…?"

"No." Monique replied very firmly.

"Oh…" Trent breathed, "Good… I mean we had good times but…"

"We're not right for each other." Monique finished for him and smiled when Trent nodded.

"Yeah," Trent replied, "So how's that Jeff kid working out?"

"It's Jeffy and so far pretty good." Monique replied, glad that they weren't fighting or ripping each other's clothes off for once, "It happened really fast I'll admit but sometimes you just have to say, 'Fuck it' and take a risk."

Trent smiled at that, "Sounds like good advice."

Monique nodded and then the machine spat out the small bag of chips she wanted, then she put in some change for a soda and tried to think of something else to say.

But there wasn't anything else to be said, so she just walked away.

Trent stood there for a minute before grabbing his own food and headed on out, glad that things truly were over.

* * *

Ethan grinned from ear to ear as the sign that said, "Welcome to Heavensport" came within sight and they passed it bye.

"Rock A Phial here we come!" He said into the walkie-talkie and there were plenty of ragged cheers from the convoy.

"Let's just hope that it doesn't suck." Josh added while watching the port town come into view.

"It's not the destination man, it's the journey." Jesse said from the back and shocking everyone, how in the hell did he come up with something profound?!

"Something like that." Ethan replied with some amusement, "Besides if the show sucks there's supposed to be a beach nearby, we've got enough stuff here for our own party."

"Hmm… Beach party for a bunch of teens," Josh mused aloud, "I wonder if Heavensport can survive it."

"Well considering that we don't live here I'd have to say… Who cares?" Ethan snarked and then he and his boyfriend laughed a little bit at that.

Either way they were going to squeeze some fun out of this trip.

* * *

Evan stared at the building with extreme apprehension, like it was the birthplace of Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot combined.

"Honey it's only the eyeglass store." His mother said gently and prodded him to get her son moving again.

Evan grumbled and she heard a distinct, "This sucks."

"It's just a checkup to make sure your eyes are ok," she said sweetly as they reached the doors, "It could just be that you're not used to all that hard bookwork but if you need reading glasses, then you need reading glasses, that's all."

Evan Larson swallowed a breath and wished he had some liquid courage instead and walked into the building.

* * *

"I think it's really nice that you're helping Andrea to lose weight Brooke," Quinn said to Brooke Tanner as they entered her kitchen.

"Thanks," Brooke replied sincerely before grabbing a couple bags of microwavable popcorn from a cabinet and put the first one in the microwave.

"And Thank you for letting me stay a couple nights," Quinn added, "With Daria gone at that concert, Mom and Dad were eyeing each other and there was no way I could stay in that house and stay sane."

"I know what you mean Quinn," Brooke replied with full sympathy and shuddered at the thought of the things her parents did, then the microwave beeped and she pulled out the first bag and handed it to Quinn.

While Quinn poured it into the big bowl she had found in another cabinet, they waited for the other bag to finish popping.

"But why is Andrea staying the night?" Quinn asked out of curiosity.

"Her little brother is being a bastard," Brooke answered, "He keeps waving junk food in her face, trying to break her diet, so once her parents finish setting him straight, she's staying over until the dust settles."

"Oh," Quinn replied in surprise, "Wow she's really serious about this, well that's good."

Brooke smiled at that and got the second bag out of the microwave and poured it into the big bowl.

"Should we talk her into a makeover?" Quinn asked, wondering how far this was going to go.

"Once she loses the weight she'll need new clothes," Brooke admitted, "But I'm pretty sure that she wants to do her own thing, and there's no reason to start a fight over it."

While Brooke said that last bit, Andrea had been walking past the kitchen from the bathroom and had heard the tail end of that and gave Brooke a rare smile, even though she didn't see it.

Andrea scurried past as the two girls grabbed some diet sodas along with the popcorn and headed to the living room and decided to pick the movie herself.

"At least they won't force me into a makeover now." Andrea thought even while slipping Bram Stoker's Dracula into the VHS and pressed play.

Andrea smiled wickedly at her reflection in the TV screen before the scenes shifted to the previews and she thought to herself as Quinn and Brooke came in with the fake junk food, "I hope you ladies can handle Gothic Horror at its finest."

As it turned out, Brooke fell in love with the movie, Quinn came around when Dracula emerged from his earthen box at Carfax Abbey and no longer old and decrepit but as a sexy beast.

It proved to be a surprisingly fun night.

* * *

The parking lot was already filling up but everyone managed to find a space that was more or less near everyone else, and after a few confused minutes the tickets were handed out by the designated keeper (Josh) and after the designated sober drivers memorized where they were parked they made the trek to the ticket booth and the sounds of the growing crowd began to grow with the buzz of excitement.

Once they were in, it only took a few minutes of scouting to find a good space and while the J's and Tom set up blankets for people to sit on, Jesse and Robert lugged the coolers filled with soda and booze.

They had drawn lots for the DD's, and Ethan found himself sitting beerless next to Josh who was enjoying his first cold one of the day.

"You sure you're ok with this E?" Josh asked a few minutes before the show was set to begin, "I can stay sober with you."

"I'm alright with it," Ethan replied while scooting closer to his man, "I can get fucked up later, but I'll make sure you don't overdo it too soon."

Josh's smile was illuminated by the stage lights as the opening act, Lint Factory took the stage, the roars from the growing throng at this was the start of Rock A Phial.

* * *

Max and Nick body slammed each other in the growing mosh pit, while Jesse and Trent threw mud balls at each other and laughed stupidly, already three-sheets to the wind.

"Lucky bastards," Joey thought with irritation at being a DD as he caught a glimpse of them in the crowd, then he felt a familiar set of arms wrap themselves around his neck and he heard Stacy go, "Gotcha!"

She kissed his cheek and then randomly licked it, which made him giggle.

"That tickles!" Joey protested weakly before swinging around in her loosening arms and began dancing with her to the beat.

* * *

Daria curled up to Tom while they sat on the blankets, two sodas were in front of them, the music of Lint Factory was replaced by The Jiggles and served as a good soundtrack.

She had been working up the nerve to say this to him since she had last talk to him about the sex thing and now that they were alone in the crowd, and in an electric sort of environment she leaned herself just a little closer to him and suppressed her trepidation and the mental question of, "How do people go about this?"

"Tom," she told him during one of the slower, quieter song, "I… I think I'm ready."

"Ready for…?" Tom began to ask before it clicked, "Oh… Oh! So… Tonight then…"

"Yes." Daria whispered very nervously before she suddenly found herself being kissed by him and after a momentary pause kissed right on back.

After pulling away Tom asked her if she wanted to dance.

She raised an eyebrow at that, but Tom's smirk revealed he had been teasing.

Then leaned on each other for support and went back to enjoying the show, and each other.

* * *

Jeffy inhaled the last of his joint and threw the remnants on the ground and stomped on it and wished he had thought to bring more weed with him.

Monique had gone off to the bathroom and had said she'd be fine without a bodyguard, "I can take of myself." She had said with confidence, and he believed her.

So he had taken the time to try and find one of the T-shirt vendors and bought a couple of the over-priced things.

"One for me and one for her." Jeffy thought to himself, "And this time it's at a concert worth going to."

He had taken Quinn to several BoysRMen shows and had suffered every single time, what had he seen in that girl?

"Tit's and ass!" Jeffy randomly said before he giggled under the effects of THC.

Then he caught a glimpse of something through the crowd that caused him to seek it out.

It was Ethan Yeager and Josh Decker dancing to the new band to take the stage, Steel Chimera.

He watched them doing the sort of random jerky dancing that happened at rock shows, their bodies glistening with sweat, and the way that Josh's skin looked in the light, his smooth figure, that tight ass…

"Wow," Jeffy thought to himself as his mind kind of blocked out Ethan and drank in Josh, he had seen him around and had thought he was cute but this was the first time that he himself was aware of both the attraction, and how good Josh looked to him.

Jeffy breathed the word, "Wow." again before forcing himself to turn and walk away, but not without regrets.

He had to find Monique and do his best to get her in the mood cus now he had some major wood that needed to be taken care of at some point that night.

* * *

As Steel Chimera rocked on, Bob laughed as Jane tried to do a beer bomb, "No it's more like this…" he said before showing her the proper way to chug it.

"Ohhhhh…" Jane slurred in ways that reminded Bob of a certain Asiatic airhead a class under them, "Sooo thaaaatsss howwww youuu dooo itttt."

"You don't drink much do you?" Bob asked before doing another beer bomb with her, and laughed again as Jane slurred an affirmative answer.

They were approached by Jamie and Elsie, the latter being propped up by Jamie before he set her down gently on the blankets.

"Another lightweight!" Bob roared with more laughter as Elsie's head swayed back and forth as everything in the world seemed very spinney and slowed down to her for some reason.

Jamie grinned, "Yeah, and I'm regretting switching DD status with her now, and I'm sure she will in the morning."

Both of them laughed at that and Bob promised him a beer once they were at camp.

"If you remember," Jamie teased the punk but Bob waved that concern aside, "Dude it takes a lot more than a few beer bombs to do me in!"

While the next band took the stage, Jane suddenly grabbed at Bob for support and slurred sultrily (or so she thought), "Soooo yooouuu reeeaaadieee toooo gettt luuckieee toooniggghttt?"

Bob grinned like a loon and then had to tell himself that she was drunk and this was a big 'no-no'.

So he didn't respond with anything other than a quick kiss and a slip of the tongue, before he pulled away and decided to take her to the nearest food stand for something in the bread and coffee family before she got any more hammered.

* * *

It had taken awhile to find a hose but Trent had managed to get most of the mud off, "But I'll need a new shirt." He reminded to himself and then promptly forgot it again.

At least there wasn't mud in his eyes and it was mostly out of his hair.

He had lost sight of the others, but that was no big whoop, he knew where they had parked, and besides they were there to have fun, not worry.

While grooving right along to Fetal Metal, and looking for his mates, he saw a girl start to stumble after being bumped into by some jerk.

Without thinking about it, he caught her before she landed in the mud.

"Hey… Oh thanks!" she said after the initial shock wore of and Trent helped her to her feet.

He gave a lazy smile of pleasure as he got a good look at her, her pixie cut light purple dyed hair which highlighted her strange violet eyes, great skin, cool piercings, a tight black belly shirt with matching hot pants and black shoes.

"No prob," Trent drawled back while she smiled at him.

"I'm Paris," she said sweetly as she took a step closer to him.

"Trent." He replied with that lazy smile plastered on his face and his eyes sparkled.

And just like that, the music reached a fevered pitch and Trent felt like everything in the universe was working in his favor, for once.

* * *

Once the concert was over, the DD's had to lead the drunks to the cars, which was made a bit more complicated since the 'adults' in the group were covered in mud, and Trent had come with baggage in the form of some chick he had picked up.

It took a little bit to sort through it, but they had the band wrapped up in some plastic tarps and put them in the back of Rex's truck and they were off.

Once they reached the camp sight it proved to be difficult to set it up in the falling light of the sun, but they managed to pull enough of one together to pass muster for the night.

"Hey…" Trent drawled with that chick on his arm, "We should hit the beach and make a bonfire."

"That's the best idea you've had in ages." Ethan said to him in surprise and Trent drawled a thanks as he tossed the kid a beer out of pity.

* * *

It turned out that they didn't have enough wood on the beach for a big fire, but they had enough for a decent pit, which was good since it got dark surprisingly quick.

While Sandi's boombox blared out Nirvana's 'Come As You Go', she and Steve danced to it with several other couples.

Trent and Paris were making out hardcore while Max and Nick were off in the distance arguing, Jesse had slipped off and would be found much later having joined Jeffy and Monique in their tent for reasons that had nothing to do with sleep.

Ethan and Josh had both lost their shirts at the concert but hadn't noticed it, dancing up a storm in the sand, their tattoo's flashing in the flickering flames of the nearby fire.

Elsie was throwing up in the ocean while Jamie held her back from the tide and held her hair out of her face, and thus proved that he was one of the best boyfriends that she had ever had.

Most would have just left her to suffer, or tried to take advantage of the situation, the last one who had tried that had found her foot in his crotch and pepper spray in his eyes.

Jane in the meanwhile was sucking down coffee from a cheap gas station with Bob at her side to make sure she would stay ok.

"Hey Bob?" she croaked, "Did I… Offer….?"

She couldn't finish the sentence, it was too embarrassing.

Bob gave her a sheepish grin and confirmed it but added, "I know you're not ready for that, college right?"

"Yup." Jane replied, "That was the plan."

"Was the plan?" Bob replied with his hopes getting up.

Jane gave him a small smile, "Not tonight, I might puke but… much sooner than college."

Bob gave her a knowing smile even while his insides did the conga, "A gal like Jane is worth the wait." He thought to himself.

Then she suddenly jerked up and looked around and said, "Hey has anyone seen Daria?"

Bob laughed, "She went off with Tom back to the camp a few minutes ago."

"…Whoa!" Jane breathed with her eyes doing that raccoon thing, then her lips curled up into a teasing grin.

The next morning was something she was looking forward too now, whatever killer hangovers came her way.

* * *

During the setup for the tent's Tom had taken both of their sleeping bags and turned them into an ad hoc comforter over their small air mattresses, it was a warm night with a gentle breeze, the smell of sea salt was in the air, the sounds of music drifted from the beach and the occasional moan from some of the tents perfumed the air along with the scents of booze and pot.

"It's not a romantic room in a hotel," Tom conceded to Daria as they slipped in, "But that's not our thing is it?"

Daria shrugged to cover up her nerves, "I don't need corny romance but… You did the gestures, in your own quirky way."

They both laughed nervously at that, Daria suspected that he had more experience with this than she did, but now was thinking that it wasn't as much experience as most guys.

Even as she took deep breaths and began to slip out of her shirt, and was thankful for the darkness since it served as a sort of shroud, there was still a part of her that wanted to run away from this.

Then she felt his lips upon hers and then felt them trace a line down her face to her neck and a moan escaped her lips.

There was a lot of fumbling as they both got out of their clothing, and then a moment of panic when Tom had to fish out his wallet for his condoms, he glared at the old battered one and tossed it aside for the one Nick had slipped him.

The empty package littered the floor of their tent as a testament to what was to transpire as Daria began kissing him furiously to force her emotional walls to come tumbling down.

There was pain, but there was also pleasure, and the swirl of the after-concert party, no one really took note of yet another set of moans that joined the occasional chorus of the night.

* * *

The next morning was a bitch as everyone woke up in various states of hungover or exhausted or some combo of the two.

Pills were consumed along with large amounts of coffee and burnt toast from an early morning attempt at cooking using the fire pit.

Getting everything back into the cars was actually faster than unloading it in the first place, but they managed to make the camp site look more or less the way it had before.

The trip back required a few more rest stops since there was several people that needed to pee or puke, the highways were littered with the remnants of breakfasts from several of their stomachs.

The same unfortunate diner was struck again by a Brunch invasion of the Lawndale kids and the waitresses nearly went on strike, but food was served, the bathrooms used and abused even harder than before, and the bill paid in full.

Once they were in Lawndale, the various vehicles began to drift from each other since they had different stops to make before reaching their homes.

Ethan glanced up in his rearview mirror at the figures of Trent and Jesse asleep in his car, Josh knocked out in the front.

He had to wake them all up to get the MS Duo out of the car, but he heard Trent mutter something about, "Paris… I like that nipple piercing."

"TMI Trent," Ethan muttered to himself even while thinking about getting a couple piercings there himself.

He got them into Casa Lane without any significant problems and left their stuff on the floor on the theory that they could sort it out themselves.

Elsie's Corvette pulled up right after and Jane was dislodged from the back, grinning from ear to ear as she and Bob got her stuff out of the back.

Ethan asked her what had her so happy even though she was throwing up like crazy at the diner.

"Oh…," Jane said wickedly, "I found out something about Daria… and Tom."

"…No way!" Ethan said once his groggy brain made all the connections.

"Way!" Jane said oh so wickedly, "And I had fun teasing her on the walkie-talkie all the way back!"

She then laughed oh so evilly and went into her house with Bob in tow, he came out a few minutes later with red lipstick smeared on his face and a big grin to match it.

Ethan heard his cousin say, "Kids." As Bob got back into her car and they drove off.

* * *

Summer seemed to speed up like a fat guy that sat on the remote and fast-forwarded the tape, for everyone it seemed as if Fall wanted it's due and wasn't going to wait.

While Ethan worked on his drawings, and was surprised when Josh told him that Jeffy had asked him about maybe starting a band together, he also provided moral support for Rex and Mack as they were both forced to stare down the gun barrels of trials for Rex's parents and Mack's Dad.

At the last possible minute, Rex's parents took a plea agreement that netted them both 25 years in the slammer with parole in 15, to Ethan it seemed like BS due to the fact that they had tried to kill their own son, but Rex just seemed relieved that it was over.

Mack father, Alfred had taken up his own plea deal earlier than that, he got a reduced sentence but was still going to be away for a while.

While everyone in Lawndale watched the sensational trial of Janet Barch for killing her ex-husband and several other people in the fire to cover up the murder, Andrea began to experiment with different things to do in order to lose weight.

One of those experiments resulted in her being in a black tracksuit, running shoes, gasping for breath while sucking down a water bottle when a kid in glasses that looked vaguely familiar ran by, got one look at her and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Aren't you that Goth chick Andrea?" he said and the voice caused Andrea to recognize him.

"Evan?" She asked, "Why are you in glasses?"

He winced like she had stabbed him with a red hot poker and went beet red before stammering, "I have to get used to them since I need them for reading."

"You read?" she snarked in between wheezes.

"You exercise?" He zinged right back and took pleasure in seeing the normally contempt filled face vanish and was replaced with surprise.

"Good one." She conceded.

"Thanks." Evan replied with a confident strut of a grin.

Then they both stood awkwardly and shuffled their feet before Evan had a brilliant idea, "If you're going to run, then let me show you how to do it properly."

"There's a proper way to torture yourself to be healthy?" Andrea asked in mock surprise and Evan kept right on grinning.

"You've got a lot to learn Ms. Hebuca." He answered and waited for her to get her breath before taking her on a jog on one of his warm-up routes.

* * *

"How'd you get everyone out of the house?" Josh asked as soon as Ethan opened the door, the Yeager's living room was covered in some black drapes and redone as a romantic looking sort of pleasure chamber complete with blankets, pillows, tiny delicacies to consume, and a couple bottles of wine (Coyote's old fermented berry juice) chilling in some ice.

"The parents went up to a New Age convention in Lawranceville," Ethan replied as he sank into the pillows like a decadent Arabic sultan, "And I bribed Rex to take Mack out to Casa Mexica and crash at the Lanes for the night so…"

Josh grinned and couldn't get out of his clothes fast enough.

After a very long time, they were both exhausted and soaked in sweat and fluids and resting on the floor with the TV on Sick, Sad World.

Josh leaned his head on Ethan's shoulder, "Summer's ending man."

"Yeah it sucks," Ethan replied as the TV went to commercial, "But look at it this way, we're juniors now, just two more years of torture."

"True but remember where that torture is to be conducted." Josh pointed out.

"Oh right," Ethan replied and then thought of something, "But with Ms. Li gone it should get at least a little better, right?"

"Famous last words." Josh replied before sucking on Ethan's neck a little.

Ethan began to laugh and tried to protest that he was still tired, but he felt a stirring that told him that maybe, just maybe he was not.

After they were finished again, Josh was slumbering so peacefully that he was sucking on his thumb a little, though this quirk was something he hotly denied and Ethan had learned to leave it be.

He was half-asleep himself but still aware enough to be thinking.

"There's going to be a new science teacher," Ethan recalled as his thoughts turned to Lawndale High, "And who knows what sort of reshuffle that Mrs. Morgendorffer did over the summer."

It was already obvious who was really running the school, and it wasn't Principal Gibson.

"As long as it doesn't get any worse, then I can handle it." Ethan muttered unknowingly as his arm around Josh grew just a bit tighter.

"We can handle it." He amended before he began to join his boyfriend in a peaceful slumber.

Sadly this is how they were found the next morning by Willow and Coyote when they came back from their trip and whatever their time at that nudist colony the year they had had Ethan, it was still something that was a shock to see, and was later quite amusing.

Not that either one of them saw the humor in it until much later in life.

**THE END**

* * *

**Alter Egos!**

_{credits roll, featuring the instrumental "Standing on my Neck" and the following Alter Egos:_

Ethan in a Fielding Prep uniform

Daria dressed in a strapless red top, a gold cross, dangling belly piercing, tight shredded jeans, white sandals, styled hair and makeup and cherry tattoos on her breasts

Josh as a fallen angel with black wings

Tom in a Sexy Nurse costume, a nametag that reads 'Nurse Goodnsexy' is legible

Evan as a Muslim Imam

Rex nude except for a strategically placed gay pride flag that he's wrapped around his midsection

Robert as a Buddhist monk in the lotus position, on fire

Ted with dyed hair, shirtless and with home-made tattoos, carrying a Molotov cocktail

Jane wearing the Lady Gaga Bubble dress

Tori Jericho as a panther

Quinn as an Albino, wearing protective clothing, shades, and gloves.

Ed 'the Head' big and muscular in a posing pouch

Mack as the four-faced Hindu deity Brahma

The Three J's in wizard robes, waving wands in the air

Gender bent Elsie Sloane as "Elliot Sloane"

Stephen in Punk attire and Sandi in her old clothes and hair, holding hands

Brooke in a tweedy dress, nerdy glasses, holding a book on quantum physics

Andrea as Theodora of Byzantium

Kevin with a dopey grin in the Papal regalia, standing on a balcony at St. Peters

Trent dying in a hospital bed, Jane weeping next to him as the machine flat lines

Jesse and Max in matching Tuxedo's, getting married, Monique officiating the wedding in a priest's robes.

Nick as the mascot for Greystar Condoms

Three identical copies of Paris stand next to a Cylon Resurrection Tank with a fourth Paris emerging from the goop.

Stacy as a cute puppy

Bob in preppy clothes, brown hair, no tats or piercings

Jed Gibson, fit and healthy, kissing Helen on the cheek

Willow and Coyote Yeager as sold-out Yuppies in business suits, chatting on cell phones and drinking Starbucks coffee.

(la la LA la la)


	10. Chapter 10: Casino de la Rust Bucket

**Ethan Yeager in Lawndale**

**Ch 10 Casino de la Rust Bucket**

Ethan smirked and then nudged Josh's side and jerked his head in the direction of a couple of their fellow students who were eye humping the figure at the front of the science class as she lead them through a basic description of photosynthesis.

"Heh," Josh laughed, "I think they want to synthesize something, but I doubt it has anything to do with plants."

Ethan grinned at that one and looked back at the Ms. Cartwright, she was a gracefully aging older woman with an amazing figure in a dark red power suit, and a commanding presence that had the classes attention without expending much effort.

As Cartwright continued on, Ethan took out the notes from O'Neill's and a blank piece of paper and began to write down some brainstorms before sliding it over to Josh.

"Right," Josh intoned, "O'Neill's first big project for the year, the Multimedia thing."

"Well I figure since we have to do 'sound', 'music' and 'images' for it, you can do the music, I'll draw some stuff, then we can do voice overs together or something." Ethan replied quietly as Josh circled a couple of the brainstorms that he thought might be doable.

He then slid the paper back over, "Sounds good," Josh replied, "Maybe we could do it on how emotionally unstable teachers keep their jobs despite overwhelming evidence that they suck as teachers."

Ethan's chuckle at that was a bit too loud since it attracted the attention of others, and Ms. Cartwright.

"Mister Yeager," she said in quiet tones that never the less were quite attention grabbing, "Is there something funny you'd like to share with the rest of us?"

Even though he was now on the spot Ethan managed a little snark, "No, just something that happened in O'Neill's."

Ms. Cartwright gave a small smirk at that, "Yes… my _esteemed _colleague..." She said and put a liberal amount of contempt in the word 'esteemed'.

"Well whatever it is can be said outside of class, do you understand?" She said to him in a voice that would brook no disagreement.

"Of course Ms. Cartwright," Ethan replied much more respectfully than before.

Cartwright gave him a much kinder grin and finished with, "Now back to what we were discussing before, which are the plants that do not use photosynthesis to generate energy, chemoautotrophs."

As she resumed her lecture, Ethan couldn't help but think that while he was getting a lot out of it that a lot of his classmates were probably quite lost.

"She should be teaching at a college," Ethan realized to himself, "Not a high school."

* * *

In his office, Principal Jed Gibson was finding himself in a bit of a pickle, his old colleague DeMartino was pulling out all the stops to try and get an early renegotiation of the teacher's contracts for raises, and even with the money recovered from Li's 'slush fund' in the Cayman Islands and the work he and Helen had put into balancing the budget, things were going to be tight this year.

"Ok maybe I should have paid more attention when she was explaining all of this." Jed conceded to himself while he rubbed his forehead and was tempted to dip into his brewski stash in the small fridge he had put in his new office (Ms. Li's old one).

Gibson did recall that there was supposed to be another referendum on a property tax thing that would go to the schools, but Helen had already written it off as a lost cause.

"The voters didn't go for it last year, why on earth would things be any different?" She had said very dismissively, and at this point he had to agree with her.

"But we need more cushion than this!" Jed thought out loud to himself, "Otherwise we'll have to slash stuff and Helen's right, we can only take so much from those artsy fartsy and textbook things before we have to…"

He gulped and was unable to bring himself to even utter the ultimate blasphemy, _cutting the sports budget_.

Then a rare light bulb went off in his head and he snapped his fingers.

"Hey!" He said with hope overcoming his despair, "We'll just have to do some fundraisers this year, get the kids and their parents to contribute and…"

He knew there were some fancy words that would give him cover, but he couldn't remember them, usually he just had Helen say them to whomever needed to hear them.

He had more important things to do, like… like…

"My head hurts…" Jed complained before he remembered that out of all of Ms. Li's papers, there was one notebook full of ideas that he had found and had stashed away somewhere in his desk.

It took a few minutes to find it, but when he did, Gibson gave a war whoop of triumph and almost spiked it.

He flipped through it, and had to dig a bit since it was full of paranoid rants about terrorist assaults, the Freemasons, the Church of Scientology, and how a new security grid would protect her from all of it.

"Ok here we go," Jed muttered, "Fund raiser ideas… Hey this sounds cool, Casino night on a cruise ship…"

And that's how about a few hours later that Helen Morgendorffer found this dead bird on her proverbial doormat with a very proud looking Jed Gibson grinning like a loon, waiting to be patted on the head for it.

* * *

"And that's basically everything," Jodie concluded as she lead the new student through the halls of Lawndale, "Any questions?"

The new student in question just shrugged his shoulders and asked what came next, Jodie gave him a polite smile and said that he would have to meet with the school's new guidance counselor, Mr. Martinez.

"Just be glad you're not dealing with Ms. Manson or the threat of Self-Esteem class." Jodie thought to herself, glad that the VP had convinced Principal Gibson that they would save time and money by scrapping that torture and getting a _real _Guidance Counselor for the school.

The young man ran his fingers through his long, black dyed hair and replied, "I don't go for that psychology crap."

Jodie smirked and replied, "Just fake your way through it, that's what a lot of people do."

"True," the boy conceded, "But I was never good at coming off as normal."

They both laughed at that, since he was wearing a black shirt with a picture of a bloodstained skull, beaten up black jeans with a belt with metal studs, and black combat boots.

"Trust me," Jodie replied sweetly as she led him to Mr. Martinez's office, "This school is so full of freaks that you'll fit right in."

But just as they reached the door, and said, "Well this is where we part ways for now Joseph Appleton."

"Call me Joe," he replied with charm, "Everyone does."

* * *

Stacy felt what she hoped was the last of the vomit spray out of her mouth, she sobbed weakly once her lungs had captured some oxygen and used a hand to prop herself up lest she fall face first into the mess she had made.

"At least I made it to the bathroom," was her first rational thought on the matter, but wished she had gotten to the actual _toilet _rather than the linoleum floor.

She scooted away a bit from the expanding puddle, too weak at the moment to get up, her body shook.

"I thought I'd be over the flu by now." Stacy muttered to herself, "I've been sick like this for a week."

She felt that weird feeling in her head again that she was missing something obvious, like that time she had struggled for nearly an hour to open a jar of pickles before her Dad had snatched the jar and twisted it the other way and it popped right open.

She shoved the feeling aside and managed to reach the wall used her hand to steady herself as she got up off of the icky floor.

"Nurses office." Stacy muttered to herself as she left, leaving the puke pile for someone else to deal with.

* * *

As Ethan walked away to get to his next class, one of two that they didn't share together, Josh turned back to his locker to get his math book.

But as soon as he pulled it out a hand slapped his back and a familiar voice said, "Yo Josh, wasup?"

"Hey Jeffy," Josh replied as he turned around, math book in hand and felt a small wave of pleasure as he looked at the athletic figure in front of him, his reddish hair was a bit more messy than it used to be, and he had abandoned the preppy thing in favor of stuff from thrift stores and made it look good.

Damn good.

Jeffy for his part smiled a bit sheepishly at the alternate looking blond, with his sexy blue eyes, piercings, and that 'too cool for the room' demeanor that he gave off in waves.

"I just wanted to ask you about some ideas for the band." Jeffy said by way of introduction, even while his palms got oddly sweaty for some reason.

Josh felt a bit lightheaded but said a bit nervously, "Uh… Sure, well we need settle on a name, and we need a drummer and a singer since… well…"

"We suck at singing." Jeffy supplied for him and they both laughed.

"Yeah, we do." Josh said softly and for some reason smiled warmly at the boy in front of him.

"I wrote some name ideas down," Jeffy said suddenly after things had gotten weirdly quiet and slipped Josh the crumpled up paper from his pocket.

He smoothed it out and promised to look at it in class.

Things felt very awkward after that for a minute before Jeffy stammered out, "Well… gotta go, class and all that."

"Yeah," Josh replied as Jeffy turned around to walk away, "Class…"

For some reason he stood there for a minute, his gaze fell on Jeffy's retreating backside until he was lost in the crowd.

Then Josh shook himself out his stupor and went off to Math for an hour's worth of boredom.

* * *

"Uh… can you help?" a voice said from behind him, when Ethan turned around he found himself face to face with a kid he had never seen before.

"Who are you?" Ethan asked as he gave him the once over, he had to admit that the Goth kid looked good.

"I'm new here," he replied a bit nervously, "Oh my names Joe by the way."

"Ok Joe," Ethan replied and felt a small half-smile form for some reason, "Let me guess you're lost and looking for your class, right?"

"Pretty much," Joe replied and showed Ethan his schedule, "I have Gym apparently… hooray."

The hooray was uttered flatly and sarcastically.

Ethan's half-smile became a full-blown grin, "That's what I have next, follow me to what will amount to football practice."

"But I don't do sports." Joe replied with confusion as he followed Ethan down the halls, even while thinking that he liked Ethan's wavy brown hair.

"Neither do I," Ethan answered slyly, "But the new Coach is like our old ones, why waste time on anything else except the gridiron?"

"…This place sucks doesn't it?" Joe asked in a flat voice that dreaded the obvious answer.

"Dude," Ethan replied with snark, "This is High School."

"Gotcha." Joe answered in utter defeat.

Granted he hadn't had high hopes that this new school would be any better than his old one, but he had met a couple people who seemed to have working minds.

"A silver lining." Joe thought to himself, "Maybe I've found a friend in hell…"

Hope was ever the carrot that kept people going in this world, and Joe felt his right hand slip into the left sleeve of his long shirt and rub the scar on his wrist.

Maybe he had found something worth holding onto.

"Maybe." Joe thought to himself as they reached the locker rooms, otherwise known as purgatory before the hell of gym class.

But as Joe picked a locker that was near Ethan's, he noticed that there was a bit of a space between the two of them and the other guys who were filtering in.

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing about it, dismissing it as having something to do with him.

People tended to react that way around him, or they used to in his old town.

"Moving to a new place hasn't changed that much," Joe thought a bit bleakly as he changed into an old shirt and a ragged pair of black gym shorts.

When he glanced at Ethan, he noticed that the kid had an impressive collection of tattoos and found himself asking, "Who did all the ink?"

Ethan looked up as he slid his gym shorts on and grinned, "The local tattoo guy, Axl… Why you interested in getting some?"

"Maybe…" Joe began to say before they heard a whistle, which he guessed was a signal to get on out for the start of class.

And sure enough it was every bit as bad as he had imagined it, and it reaffirmed his hatred for sports and football in particular.

* * *

As Sick, Sad World cut to commercial, Daria pushed the mute button on her living room TV to cut out the propaganda of Corporate America.

"So what are you and Josh going to do for the multimedia project?" Daria asked as she glanced at Ethan who was sitting in between her and Jane on the couch.

"Not sure yet," Ethan admitted while stretching out a bit to get more comfortable, "We're gonna work on it tomorrow."

"Ah," Jane breathed, "Let me guess, you two are winging it, right?"

"Yup."

Daria and Jane snickered, "Well we have a concept in mind for ours, and we're having Trent do the music for us."

"Uh Daria…" Ethan replied with some caution, "No offense to you or Janie but Trent isn't exactly the most _reliable _person in the world for something like this."

"True," Daria answered with a shrug, "That's why I also told his new girl about our diabolical plan, and she's game to making sure that he actually does it."

"He's still seeing that Paris chick?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup." Jane replied, "Shocking I know but Trent has it in him to date a girl for longer than a couple days that isn't Monique."

Ethan wasn't sure how to reply to that, but thankfully the show came back on and gave them fair warning about how ghosts might be squatting, rent-free, in their attics.

"There's a Sick, Sad World marathon on for Friday night." Daria mentioned during the big interview with the 'ghost detective'.

"Yeah I know," Ethan replied but sighed, "But there's a big game between Lawndale and Oakwood that night so I'll probably miss most of it."

Daria and Jane gave him matching weird looks and Jane said, "Check his head for bumps."

"Since when do you care about football?" Daria asked incredulously.

"Since Rex started living with us." Ethan replied flatly and snickered when they went 'Oh' in unison.

They watched the rest of the show quietly until the next commercial break, as soon as Daria put the TV back on mute, Ethan got up and got them all refills on soda and snacks.

When he got back and distributed the bounty, the girls asked him what Josh was up too.

"He and Jeffy are at his place putting together material for this band they want to start." Ethan replied as he sat back down, "I figured why subject my eardrums to the agony so…"

"Understood _Compadre_." Jane replied before munching on chips.

"And what about your new companion?" Daria asked casually while opening a soda.

Ethan looked confused for a moment before going, "Oh… You mean Joe? Apparently he just got into the L-D and needed directions and I was the lucky victim, I mean helpful student."

"No you mean the first one." Daria snarked as the last segment of the show came back on.

Ethan smirked but said nothing, but the TV was drowned out by the sounds of Quinn Morgendorffer rushing down the stairs on the phone.

"I know!" She said in her high-pitched voice, "I mean if having your parent be the Vice Principal means that you still don't get warned about stuff like this and you have to spy on them then what's the point of having them be in the job in the first place?!"

"Just to make you miserable." Daria snarked, but Quinn didn't hear her and kept on talking even as Daria turned up the volume.

"Well since we're going to be on a cruise ship for the school and stuff then we'll have to hold an emergency Style Girls meeting to prepare, especially on such short notice, we only have a week to be in style for an event like this."

"Cruise ship?!" the trio said unison as Quinn rushed out the door with cellphone firmly planted to her ear.

"I think I'll be skipping that." Jane thought aloud and the others murmured their agreement.

"I'll go ask Mom what this is about." Daria said as she got up off of the couch, "Cus this sounds like one of Ms. Li's old schemes."

"Please don't speak that name out loud Daria you'll frighten the children." Ethan joked with a dramatic cringe.

"There aren't any children here." Daria replied as she kept walking.

"Then you're frightening me." Ethan said just before she was out of earshot.

Jane patted him on the back and went, "There, there."

* * *

Stacy stared at the unopened box on the edge of the bathroom sink like it was a coiled viper, she was sitting on the lid of the toilet, trying to work up the nerve to open it.

"Oh come on!" She said to herself in her bathroom, "The nurse is crazy, there's no way that I'm… I'm…" She couldn't' finished that sentence.

"It's probably something else." Stacy said to convince herself, and stomped on the errant thought that tried to do the math between when her menstrual cycle normally happened and it's… lateness.

"It's been late before." Stacy reminded herself firmly, "It's nothing."

But she couldn't bring herself to open the box.

Instead she grabbed it and shoved it into her pants pocket, wishing that it didn't make such a noticeable bulge.

She went downstairs to the phone and dialed the familiar number and felt relief when Joey answered it instead of his kid brother.

"Hi Stacy!" Joey said happily on the other end of the line.

"Hey Joey." Stacy said nowhere near as happily.

"Stacy, what's wrong?" Joey asked with his own joy slipping away, not sure why his number one girl would suddenly be like this.

"I… I need you to come over." Stacy said very flatly while her free hand fondled the box in her pocket, "There's something that I…"

She had trailed off and fell silence, which forced Joey to go, "Uh… you still there?"

"Just come over, ok?" Stacy snapped with a wheeze, the stress causing her to slip into some of her old habits.

"Okay, ok geez." Joey replied defensively, "I'll be there in half-an hour tops."

"…Thanks Joey," Stacy answered much more sadly, "I love you."

"I love you too Stacy." He barely got out in time as she hung up the phone.

* * *

"Wow Bob," Jeffy said as he and Josh lounged on beanbag chairs in his garage, "I didn't know you could sing."

Bob grinned sheepishly, "I'm no opera singer but I can carry a tune."

"Dude did I tell you or did I tell you?" Josh said to Jeffy with a big shit eating grin.

"Yeah, you did tell me." Jeffy replied suitably chastened.

Bob joined them on a spare beanbag chair and asked Josh how he had figured it out.

"I heard you singing to yourself at lunch when you thought no one would notice." He replied with slyness.

"Oh." Bob breathed, "I guess I shouldn't have brought my music in but I was in the mood for some Ramones."

He had been listening to tunes on his cd player, and hadn't realized he had been singing softly to himself at the time.

"So…" Jeffy said carefully, "You wanna join our band?"

"Sure I guess." Bob replied and then he asked, "What band by the way?"

"The one we are putting together." Josh answered with a grin, "We don't have a name for it yet."

"Or a drummer." Jeffy piled on.

"But you have to start somewhere, right?"

"True that." Bob answered and then laughed as Jeffy and Josh began bantering about possible names.

As he relaxed a mite, watching the two of them go at it with the increasing rhyming nature of the names, he picked up on how… cozy they seemed.

For a wild moment he wondered if they were getting a little _too cozy._

"Nah," Bob thought to himself dismissively, "They're dating other people and neither of them seem the types to do that."

* * *

"You're getting really good at this Andrea." Evan complimented her as they both took a break from running laps around the local park, a convenient water fountain nearby for hydration.

"Thanks." She answered sincerely as she rubbed a sore calf muscle, the pounds were melting away and were being replaced with a good muscle tone.

Evan took a moment to polish his glasses since they had started to fog up again, he still wasn't digging how they framed his face but he had gotten used enough to wearing them that he tended to forget to take them off when he wasn't reading.

He slipped them back on and justified it to himself since he did have the case on him and said to Andrea, "I've started reading some of those books you recommended."

"Cool," Andrea replied and then asked, "Which one are you on?"

"The Bell Jar."

Andrea gave him a rare smile, "It's really good but I will warn you that it is depressing."

Evan nodded in acknowledgement and asked if she was ready to run some more.

"Sure." Andrea replied and then took off without him.

"Wait for me!" Evan yelled and hot footed it to catch up, but found himself admiring the view from behind.

"She's really getting in shape," he thought to himself as he got his rhythm back, "Not to mention how interesting she is to talk to."

He stayed a step behind her for a bit longer than needed, wanting the mental image to stay with himself for a while before getting in to her side.

Andrea glanced at Evan's profile and didn't notice that she smiled faintly as his body moved like a well-oiled machine.

"If he keeps working on his intellect he could be quite a catch." Andrea thought to herself, and then wondered why she would think something like that.

So she put more energy into her feet and sped up in order to stop thinking for a while.

* * *

Joe Appleton made an amused sound in his throat as he entered the living room and saw that his father had fallen asleep on the couch watching a football game.

He grabbed a blanket and threw it over his dad's slumbering figure and whispered, "Get some rest Dad."

He then slipped into the kitchen and grabbed a snack before going to his room and shutting the door, he played some music on a soft volume and grabbed his camera and set it up to prepare for his nightly video diary.

"To my loyal viewers," Joe said with exaggerated enthusiasm, "Today was my first foray into the battlefield that is my new local high school, I saw a lot of interesting people, some of whom I have some hope for, I didn't talk to a whole lot of them just yet… No nerve and all that."

He fake laughed.

"Well that Jodie who did the tour seemed really nice, and while some of the teachers were interesting, others clearly belong in a nut house."

He then shifted the angle a bit.

"I chatted with a couple girls but they weren't very interesting, and I saw this weird clique of them and for some reason they said I was a 'Crime Against Style', whatever that means."

He then holds his 'Style Citation' up to the camera.

"There were a couple other people but the one that stood out for me was this one guy who helped me find my gym class… Ethan Yeager."

Joe smiles at the camera.

"I… I hope I found a new friend, I could certainly use one considering the hell that Mother put me through."

Joe falls silent for a long minute.

"Well… Dad is getting used to his new job at Grace, Sloane, and Page, the tireless work of the accountant strikes again!"

He adjusts the camera angle again.

"I hope he meets someone new soon, someone that isn't like… her."

Joe then goes quiet and clicks his tongue a couple times.

"Well I guess this is all for now, this is Joe Appleton, signing off, until next time kids!"

The screen goes black.

* * *

"Well this could just be nothing." Stacy said as Joey stared at the little white device in her hands, his jaw dropped and his eyes as large as saucers.

"I mean it says on the box that there are false positives and… and… and…" Stacy began to hyperventilate at that, which caused Joey to snap out of his stupor and he went over to shake her out of it.

Once he had her calmed down a bit, he found himself stuck asking the only question he could think of.

"What do we do?"

Neither of them could meet the other's eyes.

"I… I don't know." Stacy replied with tears starting to well up again.

"But… Maybe this test is wrong." She added, latching onto hope, "I mean it is a cheapo that the school nurse gave me, I'll do another tomorrow to be sure."

"And… if it is sure?" Joey asked as his hands shook with fear.

"I… I don't know." Stacy replied with confusion and fear in abundance.

At that point she started to cry.

"Stacy…" Joey moaned before he did the right thing and held her tight and began telling her over and over that no matter what happened next, he'd be right there with her.

* * *

Jed Gibson finished reading off the day's announcements and looked up from his seat at the towering figure of Helen Morgendorffer, giving him the evil eye.

"Don't worry about it Helen," he said with more bravado than he felt under that unrelenting gaze, "It'll all work out."

Helen sighed and her face softened a bit, always a good sign in Jed's eyes.

"I hope your right." She said with finality, "Because we don't have much of a choice."

Internally she was planning on getting into Gibson's office when he wasn't around and rotor-rooting for that damn notebook before he got anymore harebrained ideas out of it.

* * *

Daria had been hoping to avoid this, but alas she and the usual suspects were being approached by Jodie herself in the halls after first period.

"I know I'm wasting my time but I'm going to make the gesture," Ms. Landon said as she approached the infamous foursome, "But do you guys want to buy tickets to Casino Night?"

"We'd like to help but our schedules are packed." Jane answered for the group.

"There's a Sick Sad World marathon on Friday and we'll be way too tired." Daria said for herself and Jane.

"Yeah and we've got our own plans." Josh said with a grin at Ethan.

Jodie just laughed and said they were all hopeless.

"If you don't mind me asking Jodie," Daria said before she could walk away, "How's the workload this year?"

Jodie sighed at that, "Nowhere near the old levels, but I am in Student Government and a couple other things."

"How many other things?" Ethan asked out of morbid curiosity and then she listed quite a few activities, and while it wasn't at her previous critical mass, it certainly was eye-popping.

"I thought you got your parents to back off on all that." Jane said with confusion and a slight headache once Jodie finished the list.

"They have," Jodie replied quickly, "But well… When summer ended I had a lot of free time on my hands and, well…"

Daria snickered, "Jodie Landon, poster child for workaholism."

"I'm not that bad!" Jodie protested, but it was in vain since it resulted in Daria, Jane, Ethan, Josh, and several other passersby to stare at her with a gaze of 'who are you kidding Ms. Landon?!'

"Okay maybe I am that bad." Jodie conceded sadly, "But I did have fun this summer, a lot more than I have in ages but, well…"

She sighed again, "I just didn't find anything fulfilling like everyone else apparently."

"Jodie…" Daria began and then trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Well anyway I've gotta go!" Jodie said before scurrying off.

Ethan sighed, "Poor Jodie…"

Everyone else felt more morose than usual before Jane lit up with a wicked grin, "I have an idea…"

Daria recognized that look, having seen it every single time Jane had tried to get her and Trent to connect.

"Ms. Lane," Daria said trying to cut this off on the past, "Don't go Yenta on us."

"Too late!" Jane crowed, her brain hard at work for someone to hook Ms. Landon up with.

* * *

"Ok so what were those 'big plans' you mentioned to Jodie?" Ethan asked of his boyfriend as they sat together in O'Neill's, in theory working on the Multimedia project.

"I made that up so we wouldn't look like bastards by just saying that we didn't want to go." Josh answered while looking at what they had come up with.

"Ah," Ethan breathed, "But could we have big plans of some sort?"

"Like what?"

"I could hear what you and Jeffy have come up with for the band." Ethan answered as he wrote down a few things and crossed one of them out.

"Sure," Josh replied with a strange touch of nerves that he couldn't explain, "Well technically it's me, Jeffy and Bob now since he's our singer."

"Really?!" Ethan exclaimed.

"Yes sire." Ethan Yeager heard from behind him and he glanced and saw Bob waving at him from his own partner in the project, Andrea.

Ethan turned back to Josh and smiled at the sight of his man's beautiful blue eyes, "Ok so all you need is a drummer right?"

"Yup," Josh replied, "But Bob said he knew a kid in Oakwood that has a kit and is getting decent at it."

"Cool," Ethan drawled and then switched topics with, "And I think I have a title for our project, how's 'A Sick, Sad World Approach to Life' sound?"

"It sounds like awesome!" Josh said with a big grin and then added quickly, "As long as we can back that up."

"Josh think about who we are for a sec," Ethan answered with a mix of warmth and snark, "I think we can handle it."

"Cool…"

* * *

"And a party on a cruise ship will be sooo glamorous!" one of the new popular freshman girls said happily as they walked past those two weird girls that hung around those two fairies.

"I know Irene!" one of the girl's sycophants, "And we get to gamble like the beautiful girls in the movies and stuff!"

"It's like perfect!" Irene said while twirling a finger through her curly perfect black locks, "And I'm going with Dmitri Bykov, you know _Dmitri…"_

Daria and Jane listened with morbid curiosity as the girls cooed in awe at this before they were out of earshot.

"Who's Dmitri?" Daria asked with confusion and Jane just shrugged her shoulders, but then spotted a pair who might have the answer.

"Hey Mack, Rex!" Jane said while waving wildly like she just didn't care, "Got a question for ya!"

Mack and Rex were approaching side by side and they both looked at each other with bemusement before going over and Mack spoke up for them both by saying, "Wazup Jane?"

"Who's Dmitri Bykov?" Jane asked and enjoyed seeing twin looks of surprise on the boy's faces.

"Wow!" Rex breathed, "You don't know?!"

Daria and Jane both gave him a look.

"…Nevermind." Rex murmured while looking down at his shoes for being that stupid.

Mack patted him on the back and whispered audibly, "I got this."

He cleared his throat and said, "Dmitri moved to the L-D from DC, he's the new wide-receiver on the team, why you ask?"

Jane answered by telling them what they had overheard.

Rex and Mack both chuckled and it was Rex who said, "Yeah, I could see a little airhead like Irene being proud of landing a date like that, he does look good in a uniform…"

Mack then dug an elbow into his side gave him a look, "Sorry! Sorry…" Rex replied apologetically, "I was just sayin that he looked good, not that I wanted… you know…"

"I know," Mack replied while putting an arm around his boy and pulling him in close, "But keep it to yourself _comprende_?!"

"I got it." Rex answered before giving Mack a minor PDA on the cheek.

Daria and Jane made very fake "Dwaaaaa!" noises, and just in time for Kevin to show up.

"Hey guys," he said happily, "Hey… Mack Brother sound ok?" he asked, trying out his latest nickname for Mack.

Mack thought it over and shook his head, "Nah… It doesn't sound right."

"I'll come up with something don't you worry!" Kevin replied with a big goofy grin.

"Gee I can't wait." Mack said with sarcasm.

"No problem!" Kevin answered obliviously, "So are you guys hyped up for the big game on Friday?!"

"Yes we are Kev!" Rex said with enthusiasm and pulled Mack into a knuckle sandwich.

During this Daria and Jane had turned around and begun to wander back off, but they did hear Mack's weak protests and the laughter.

Which for some reason even brought a smile to Daria's face, and unwittingly struck terror into the hearts of all those who saw it since most of them had never seen her face in any other repose than deadpan.

* * *

"I wanna go to Casino Night," Ed said to Evan as they sat in the library together, going over their class notes, "And I still have some cash left over from the summer but…"

Ed trailed off and turned beet red, but Evan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry dude, I'll hook a brother up!" he fist pumped loudly on the last part and a whole bunch of people hissed at him to be quiet.

"Sorry…" Evan whispered in embarrassment.

"Thank you!" Ed replied very gratefully and with the biggest smile that Evan had seen since they had talked Evan's parents into letting Ed stay over a whole bunch of nights.

"Don't sweat it kid," Evan replied and ruffled his hair, "It's what friends are for."

Even as he said it, Evan decided to chat with Andrea to try and find a girl that would be willing to go with Ed, was reasonable to look at, and wouldn't treat it as a pity date.

"He deserves better than that." Evan thought to himself and looked at the little guy protectively, daring the world to try and hurt him again.

"Cus this time he's got backup." Evan thought firmly and then glanced at the stuff from Cartwright's class and felt his head swim a bit, until he remembered to put on his glasses and felt much better.

Ed glanced up by instinct and smiled at Evan's now bespeckled face and thought, "He's getting used to them, good. He still looks like an Adonis, an Adonis with a budding intellectual side too."

He had never felt prouder of any of the people he had helped with homework than he did with Evan Larson.

It was nice to have a friend that had your back.

* * *

"Uh guys…" Joey said to his two friends as they stood in the empty boy's bathroom, "I have something to fess up too."

"What's that Joey?" Jamie asked and hoped he wasn't coming out of the closet, since that seemed to be happening a lot lately.

"Me and Stacy… well…" Joey then trailed off and whispered something they couldn't hear.

"Joey you're gonna have to speak up." Jeffy said after Joey repeated himself at that same low whisper.

"Stacy's pregnant!" Joey nearly yelled and then gasped and clasped his hands over his mouth and looked around but didn't see anyone else in eh bathroom.

"Whoa!" the other two J's breathed.

Joey turned very red and looked like he wanted to cry, "She did the pee stick test and it… it…" He couldn't finish that but he did latch onto the other thing, "But we're getting another one since hers was a cheapo and… we'll see… but I've just gotta feeling that its' for real."

"Holy fuck man!" Jamie said as he absorbed this.

"Dude!" Jeffy added, "You… You're going to be a _Dad_ man!"

"…Yeah." Joey said weakly, "And… we're not sure what we're gonna do…"

"Dude…" both J's breathed.

Then Jamie came up with the brilliant question of, "Have you told your parents?"

"No freaking way man!" Joey answered with fear, "They'll kill us I just know it!"

"Maybe you should talk to someone about this… Not a parent!" Jeffy added hurriedly.

"We're going to the free clinic for, like, an exam if the test comes back positive…" Joey replied as he turned on the water and washed his face a bit, "I guess we can ask them questions and stuff…"

"Just don't tell anyone ok?!" Joey added after drying his face and his friends offered their assurances of total discretion.

As soon as they exited the bathroom, the black shaggy haired figure of Saul Maxwell came out of the stall in shock and thought to himself, "I've just gotta tell the guys about this later!"

* * *

"So this is the infamous Joe Appleton." Josh said as the dark haired kid sat down at their table across from him.

"In the flesh, more or less." The soft spoken boy replied, his dark eyes hopeful that this would work out.

They were quickly joined at the lunch table by Shaggy, then Sandi and Bob, and then Daria and Jane, and Andrea filled out the tail end.

It seemed strange to see Shaggy without Kelly, but their relationship had hit a rough patch and they weren't really talking to each other at the moment, Ethan glanced at a couple tables ahead and saw her sitting with Angel and Burnout, both of whom had acquired new boyfriends.

But the stoner was putting a brave face on it by very excitedly showing them his pics from his trip to Burning Man.

"And this is when they… burned it! And it was like… Whoa! And I was like… Whoa!" Shaggy said very lazily, his eyes blazing red.

Ethan grinned at him, "Dude, I'm glad you're a genius cus otherwise you'd never graduate High School."

"Me too." Shaggy answered in a drawl as he forgot what he had just done and tried to show them the pics again.

Josh sighed and snatched them and put them back in the envelope and distracted Shaggy with some of his jello.

"Hey Daria," Sandi said to the girl at her side, "You think you could talk your Mom into getting better cafeteria food?"

"Tried that," Daria answered while wiping some ketchup off of her blue shirt and secretly deciding to get some sort of coat, a better one than the green one, "But she said that it wasn't in the budget."

"Is that why they're doing Casino Night?" Joe asked in order to get into the conversation.

"Gibson is doing Casino Night because he found the idea in Ms. Li's old notebook of thoughts for fundraisers." Daria answered and everyone but Joe blanched in horror.

"This… This is one of Ms. Li's crackpot ideas?!" Sandi spoke with terror on behalf of everyone.

"Yup." Was Daria's answer.

"Yikes." Ethan drawled flatly.

"Who's Ms. Li?" Joe asked and then added "Ethan why is everyone staring at me like that?"

He grinned at the kid and said, "He doesn't know yet of the Saga of our old Principal, Angela 'the Insane to the Membrane' Li."

Everyone gave Joe very wicked grins and Daria cleared her throat and began to tell him the perfectly true and factual story of the reign of the previous Principal of the school.

For a long time Joe Appleton thought that they were pulling his leg, until his instincts got through to him and he went, "Whoa!"

"Yeah…" Jane replied with a wicked grin and a squeeze of Bob's thigh under the table, "That sums it up nicely."

She took pleasure in making Bob squirm as she said it, and she knew that he liked it too.

* * *

"I'm surprised that you didn't crack and tell Quinn," Joey said on the other end of his bathroom door while Stacy did her business on a much more expensive pee stick.

"She knew something was up since I was… You know… Down…" Stacy called out through the door, "She even canceled her hair appointment and is coming over to my house later, no doubt to interrogate me… Either way I think… I think I'll tell her."

"Uh Stacy," Joey said as he heard the door unlock and went inside, "That's like, getting on the PA."

"Yeah I know," She answered with unusual calmness for the situation, "But if it's true then everyone will find out sooner or later so…"

"Good point." Joey replied as glanced at the offending object that was on his sink's counter.

They stared at it for what felt like hours as the results came back.

It was a blue plus sign.

"Oh God… Oh God… Oh God!" Stacy wheezed and started hyperventilating, which forced Joey into action rather than a paralyzed stupor that he had been falling prey to.

He pulled her into a tight hug and was saying much more loudly than he realized, "It's ok, It's ok… It's ok… I mean… It's ok…"

Unnoticed to either of them, Joey's mother had heard the commotion and had come up to check, she saw her son hugging his girlfriend, in the families bathroom, and her gaze fell on a certain white stick on the counter.

This was all that she needed to see.

"OH MY GOD!" Mrs. Black screamed and startled the two kids, "YOU GOT HER PREGNANT?!"

Both kids had never felt so miserable in all their lives.

* * *

The kid with pink spikes, shredded jeans, a leather coat with no shirt, a few tattoos, and a cocky demeanor grinned at the two alternative kids in front of him, Bob had made the introductions.

"J.P., this is Jeffy and Josh," Bob said pointing each of them out, "This is John Paul Taylor, but he hates that so call him J.P."

J.P. for his part punched Bob in the shoulder, hard and said, "Yeah… Just J.P., thanks."

"Are you related to Brittany Taylor?" Jeffy asked and then wondered if that was a bad idea.

"Yeah…" J.P. replied with a grimace, "I'm related to the psycho branch of the family, and Britt's one of the worst ones."

The others tried to shrug that off, even though both Jeffy and Bob thought she had great tits, and Jeffy had slept with her a few times behind Kevin's back to boot.

"So do we got a name for this?" J.P. asked and waved a hand around the Decker's garage with the equipment partly set up.

"We've got a few ideas," Jeffy said and showed him the crumpled up and battered list.

J.P. glanced at it and smiled at the first name to jump out at him, "Helpful Corn…?"

Jeffy laughed, "Yeah, that was Jesse's idea."

"Who's Jesse?" Josh and J.P. asked, and Bob found it strange that Josh looked… kinda pissed.

"A friend of mine," Jeffy answered, and J.P. went back to the list and said, "What about Orbital Loungechair?"

"Nah." Bob answered, "I think I've heard it before…"

They indulged in banter over names for a while until Josh blurted out, "What about 'The Yobs'?"

"The Yobs?!" Everyone else said with confusion.

"Well what's the opposite of what we are?" Josh asked rhetorically, "Yobs of course, so… why not?"

"Hmm…" Bob mused, "It would work… until we come up with something better."

"Aw screw it I can't come up with anything better," J.P. answered while playing with a pocket knife, "What about you Jeff, the Yobs?"

Jeffy gave Josh a soft smile and said, "Yeah… The Yobs sounds good… Well actually it sounds terrible but that's what we're going for, right?"

J.P. and Josh snickered at that, and Bob raised an eyebrow at that smile.

"This can't be good." Bob thought to himself and hoped he could find a way to head off… whatever this was before it became a massive, epic train wreck that brought ruin upon them all.

* * *

Joey Black and Stacy Rowe sat on the Black's love seat, clinging to each other's hands for dear life and moral support as they had for about an hour while the barrage of parental shock from both the Black's and the Rowe's hit them at Hiroshima levels of power.

"I can't believe that you two were this irresponsible!"

"My God! My Baby is having a Baby!"

"What the hell were you two thinking?!"

"You little bastard! How dare you do this to my daughter?!" This came from Stacy's Dad and was directed at Joey, who was very much within wrath froth range.

This brought the ire of Mr. Black who said some very thinly veiled insinuations that hinted that Stacy was a slut.

Mr. Rowe began to ball up his fists and gave Joey's father a very ugly look, but before anything could happen on that front there was a loud "Thud!" as the front door was thrown wide open and Quinn Morgendorffer rushed in with a very loud clatter.

"Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Stacy!" She screeched as she located her prey and unwittingly cut a very nasty fight off right at the knees, she didn't seem to notice everyone staring at her as she rushed over to her friend, "I heard the rumors and I couldn't find you at your house so I canceled my hair appointment and rushed EVERYWHERE to find you!"

"What…What rumors?" Stacy managed to wheeze out, and that was when Quinn realized that there were four very tense adults in the room, along with Joey's kid brother Mickey who was wide mouth and wide eyed at the chaos being unleashed in front of him.

"OH MY GOD!" Quinn screamed dramatically and put two beautiful hands to her face, "THE RUMORS ARE TRUE, STACY YOU ARE PREGNANT!"

Dead silence consumed the room at those words, until Joey managed to squeak out like he had been kicked in the balls, "How'd you find out?"

Quinn then began a very long-winded explanation, "Well Tori called me and told me the word, because she heard it from Rene, who heard it from Heidi, who heard it from Serena, who heard it from her boyfriend on the football team who apparently was told by someone who heard, well… nevermind." She realized towards the end of the story that informing Stacy that her boyfriend had been overheard boasting about it to his friends under_ these_ circumstances might not be the best way to go about things.

It was enough however to defuse the madness and Quinn's long speech had forced the minds of the parents to focus and think about things a bit more calmly and rationally.

Mrs. Rowe turned to look at her daughter and her long-time beau and felt a stab of shame at her behavior and said a bit more contritely, "Well what's done is done… Stacy…" words then failed her, so she rushed over to her daughter and wrapped her up into her arms and they both began to break down into loud sobs and tears.

Joey's parents and Stacy's Dad watched the spectacle unfold in front of them, along with Quinn and Mickey who had stepped up next to the beautiful teen girl, not sure where else he could stand safely.

"I'm sorry for what I said." Mr. Black said suddenly to Stacy's father who turned to look at his previous foe who was now offering up his hand for a shake.

He stared at it for a long moment before taking it and giving it a single shake before pulling away and offered his own apologies.

Meanwhile Joey had been forced to get up off of the couch and took the only refuge he could find, which was next to his kid brother and Mickey, his eyes on the floor and his head a bit down.

Quinn for her part patted him on the back and tried to offer up words of comfort but even she felt that they were a tad hollow.

"It's like no matter what they decide to do it's going to be rough on them." Quinn thought to herself as she looked at Stacy and her Mom weeping in each other's arms and noted that she now knew where Stacy got her emotional… issues.

Quinn took a deep breath and continued to think, "Well at least her skin is going to look great with those prenatal vitamins she'll be on and…"

She struggled to find positives in the situation, but she did try.

"I'll get a baby name book for them and stuff and… But what if they get rid of it?"

Quinn decided to hold off on getting that book for now.

She had no idea what they were going to do.

Then she realized that they probably didn't either.

"This is going to be a very long Sophomore year." She thought while looking at her best friend and her boyfriend, unable to keep the pity off of her face.

Even Quinn knew that there was nothing worse than that, but it was all she could give at the moment.

* * *

"So Bob called and said that they settled on a name for their band, its, drum roll please." Jane said and then grinned and Daria very reluctantly drummed on the table at their favorite booth at Pizza Prince while Ethan, Tom and Joe grinned at her discomfort.

"The Yobs." Jane finished with relish, and then relished on another slice of pizza.

"The Yobs?!" Daria and Joe both said with raised eyebrows and looks of 'What?!'

Tom laughed at that while Ethan simply grinned with his soda in his hand.

"Yeah and since you and Tom aren't doing anything big on Saturday besides sleeping, you can join me and Ethan at their first practice session at Josh's garage." Jane added before taking a gulp of her soda.

"How'd you know that?" Daria asked teasingly.

Everyone including Tom just gave her a look, and Daria laughed it off.

"Ok you've all got me pegged," Daria said with a big smile, "So Sick Sad World on Friday night, except for Ethan who will be stuck at a football game for a good chunk of it. Then we all hit Josh's Saturday night for what will amount to torture."

"It's better than torture on the Princess Fairy," Ethan replied defensively, "I looked it up, the so-called luxury liner is a converted rusted out fishing boat."

Everyone let that take a moment to sink in, "Wow," Jane supplied, "Gibson sure knows how to pick'em!"

"Heh," Ethan laughed, "I'll bet that was the boat Ms. Li would have hired for this at any rate, cheapest one and all that."

Everyone got a good laugh out of that, even Tom and Joe who hadn't had the full Ms. Li experience, but she had already become a legend among the High School set in the area.

The next topic to come up was the subject of Jane's desire to play matchmaker for Jodie Landon.

Jane just gave an evil chuckle at that and said that she and Bob were on the case, "Don't worry about Ms. Landon," She told the others, "We will find a great guy for her to go out with on the fish boat, and hopefully scare the crap out of her parents."

Joe bravely asked, "Does Jodie know what you're up too?"

Jane's grin grew in size and wickedness, "Not yet… But I'll tell her tomorrow."

Ethan patted Joe on the back and said, "Good call."

Joe smiled at the attention even as his face burned bright red, and the smile lingered for a long time, the memory of Ethan's touch upon his back even longer.

* * *

"Thanks for letting me crash here," Jeffy said to Jesse as the pair relaxed on Jesse's beat-up couch in his small apartment, a couple brewski's ice cold in their hands as they watched the news, "It would have felt weird being alone at Monique's."

"No prob," Jesse replied in his sexy drawl before downing his first beer of the night, "I understand not wanting to be alone."

A couple beers in as they watched the highlights from the latest courtroom antics of one Janet Barch, Jesse asked, "So you're not playing football this year?"

"Nope," Jeffy answered with a slightly drunken grin, "I'm doing Baseball in the spring with the other J's but this year… Things changed."

Jesse smiled at that but asked about the football scholarships, to which Jeffy had an answer.

"I wasn't good enough to get one," Jeffy answered honesty, "I'm a much better baseball player but my parents wouldn't hear a word of it, plus my friends all did so, why not play?"

"Ah," Jesse breathed while opening another beer, "So the band changed that?'

"Kind of," Jeffy admitted, "But it was a bit earlier than that, I mean after meeting Monique and hanging out with such a… a new cool crowd it really opened my eyes."

Jeffy seemed to get a bit maudlin as he said, "I mean the whole world is so… Big. It's like, bigger than, well… This crapville that's for damn sure."

"Yeah," Jesse added even as he got a bit closer to Jeffy on the couch.

Jeffy looked at the beefcake and tears welled up in his eyes, "And I… I think I'm fucking up."

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked with confusion, worried that it was about it.

Jeffy was quiet for a little while, only the trembling of his lip and the water in his eyes gave away that he was fighting back tears.

"I mean… Monique is cool with me exploring… well you know."

Jesse just nodded in acknowledgment, having had firsthand experience in the kid's 'exploring'.

"But there's this guy I've kinda become… Attracted too and, well… He's dating someone else and…"

"You're pretty sure that it's not an open relationship like you and Monique." Jesse concluded and Jeffy nodded at that.

"Is he into you?" Jesse asked and Jeffy shrugged.

"I have no idea man." Jeffy stated flatly, clearly worried and torn up.

"Have you… Done anything? Said anything?" Jesse asked and Jeffy shook his head no on both counts.

"Ok so you haven't actually fucked up at all man." Jesse said and kept the silent 'yet' to himself.

Jeffy wasn't quite sure when exactly Jesse had gotten too close to him, but he didn't really mind it, in fact he put an arm around him and pulled the big lug closer, his bare flesh underneath the leather vest gleamed in the light of the flickering television.

Jesse smiled after having glanced down at Jeffy's waist and said very carefully, "Maybe you just needed to vent, and Monique is ok with you and me messing around right?"

"Yeah." Jeffy said with heavy bated breath and felt himself lean in and kiss Jesse briefly, tasting the cheap beer and pot on his tongue.

Then he let the brief kiss turn into something more, and vented away.

* * *

"Wow…" was all that Elsie could come up with over her Beef Noodle Soup at the Good Time Chinese Restaurant.

"I know," Jamie replied having had the same reaction to Joey and Stacy's predicament when he found out earlier, "They're gonna be someone's parents!"

"What do you think happened to cause this?" Elsie asked with morbid curiosity.

Jamie just shrugged, "Dunno, he didn't say, but they had to have forgotten to use protection for some reason at some point and… well… They've got a bun in the oven."

Elsie made a noise, "My parents would _kill me _if they even thought that had happened."

Jamie looked a bit downcast at that and said quietly, "Is it wrong of me to be glad that it isn't us dealing with this?"

Elsie was silent at that for a while, taking a sip of soup as an excuse until she said, "No it's not, we've been smart about it and I'm on the Pill so we've got our bases covered."

Jamie tried to cover up his guilty feelings with a question, "How'd you talk your parents into getting you the Pill anyway?"

Elsie laughed at that, "Well it helps with other… female stuff, and I'll leave it at that."

"Oh." Jamie said flatly, which made Elsie laugh again, but he didn't really mind that.

"She's happy, so that makes me happy." Jamie thought to himself over his eggroll.

Since a happy Elsie had ways of making Jamie _very happy _indeed.

* * *

Evan dialed the now familiar number and felt a touch of nerves for reasons he couldn't fully identify, and after dealing with Damien he got through to Andrea.

"Hey Andrea!" Evan said in a chipper greeting.

"Hi Evan, what's up? Are you wanting to go on another run?"

"Nah not tonight Andy." He replied using the nickname that he had come up for her.

"Then why'd ya call?"

"I kinda need to ask you a small favor." Evan replied politely, hoping that he wasn't treading into unknown depths.

"Ok, spill."

"Ed and I are going to Casino Night and I was hoping to set him up on a date…" Evan began to explain until Andrea cut him off.

"You want me to go out with him?" she asked suddenly.

"Actually I was wanting your advice on finding him a girl." Evan admitted sheepishly.

"Oh… Okay… But why me?" Andrea asked with no small amount of confusion.

"Well, all the girls I know are the popular ones," Evan replied, "And even if I could get one of them to go with him, they'd just treat it like a pity date and the kid deserves better, you know?"

"…Yeah I do know." Andrea replied much more kindly than before, "Give me a night to think about it and make a couple calls."

"Alright!" Evan said with a fist-pump in the air that Andrea could feel through the lines.

"Evan can I ask you something?" Andrea said once he was done cheering.

"Sure Andy, what you wanna know?"

"Who are you going with?" Andrea asked and her throat had a catch in it.

"Well… I umm… I kinda…" Evan stammered and felt like an idiot, "I wanted to ask…. You… Yes I wanted to ask you out to Casino Night."

Then he mentally cursed himself for having the communication skills of a horny fourteen year old.

"I'm not in the mood for a pity date." Andrea said very flatly.

"This isn't a pity date!" Evan said quickly.

"…You sure?" Andrea replied with trepidation and hope.

"Yes I'm sure! I, Evan Larson am asking you, Andrea Hebuca out on a date on a cruise ship."

"…_Yes!"_

Evan's smile could have been used to light up a dark night in Hell, "Awesome!"

Then the power went out all across Lawndale, cutting off their phone call.

* * *

The next day at Lawndale High came by and it was punctuated with the sounds of gossip, and none more gossipy or bitchy than a certain popular Freshman girl named Irene.

"Like Ohmigod!" she said very loudly within earshot of some older popular girls, "That Stacy is such a slut! I mean who gets knocked up like that other than a slut?"

"I know…" one of her sycophants replied, she had four of them and for some reason it was impossible to remember their names.

"I agree! And she's gonna get all fat!" another one teased while remembering that she needed to throw up her breakfast.

"Ewww!" the others squealed at the thought of ugly, ugly fat, fat that could _ruin their social status._

Then Irene made a serious tactical error, she continued her line of very loud and very cruel bitching within earshot of Tori Jericho and Rene Glass.

The hot new brunette girl didn't see Tori's fist coming, but she certainly felt it when it connected with her jaw.

Then she didn't really remember much until she woke up in the nurse's office an hour later with her friends, all of whom were still out cold.

There were twenty three witnesses to this and they all agreed that the poor girls had tripped and fallen all over each other.

And for some funny reason the cameras in that area of the hall that remained from Li's regime had mysteriously been disconnected and the tapes vanished without a trace.

Much later that day Jane Lane was handed a small bag full of VHS tapes by Tori Jericho outside of the building and was asked, very nicely, to use them in an art project as soon as possible.

"And be sure that they are completely destroyed in the process ok?" Tori asked sweetly while Jane looked at the bag and recalled the rumors and then nodded firmly and the deal was struck.

But that was much later.

* * *

In the present, Stacy was surrounded by the other members of the Style Girls Club who weren't dishing out a beatdown, all of them being as supportive and sympathetic as they could.

Which meant that a lot of the conversation involved maternity wear, makeup, and how great her skin was going to look.

"I mean there's no avoiding the pounds so you might as well just pig out and enjoy it." Quinn said with all the knowledge of the situation that any teenage girl would have that hasn't had any experience with the situation at all.

"Buuuutttt…." Tiffany began to drawl, but everyone else just tuned her out.

"Thanks guys," Stacy said sweetly with Brooke letting her lean supportively on her shoulder, "I mean this whole thing is just…" Stacy started to sniffle and without thinking about it Brooke pulled out a small packet of disposable tissues from her small purse and handed them over.

"I should get more of those." Brooke noted to herself as Stacy started to cry again.

She started to scan for Joey, hoping that he would show up soon.

* * *

Joey was having the very strange experience of being partly congratulated by his teammates for 'gettin' some' but also a lot of shocked "Whoa's!" when they all realized that he was going to be, well…

"A Dad." Joey thought to himself again, still quite floored by the thought and scared out of his damn mind.

Jeffy and Jamie were right at his side as usual, and they were now being joined by that new Russian guy on the team, Dmitri.

Who for his part brushed some of his long, dirty blond hair out of his pale green eyes and told him in a thickly accented voice, "You're not alone in dis situation, my own parents conceived me when they were about your own age."

The big bulky son of the largest nation on Earth put a meaty hand on his shoulder and patted him, "It's going to be tough, no lies about that, but from what mine papa and mama say, dis worth it in da end."

Joey managed a faint smile at that and was glad that he was at least trying, "I hope so… I mean we haven't even decided if we're going to raise it or like… adopt out… But I… A big part of me wants to keep it."

Joey then fell into himself and muttered, "I just don't know what Stacy wants, she won't tell me."

They rounded the corner and walked a few feet and Dmitri spotted the Style Girl's first and pointed them out.

"Why don't you ask her?" he said with a nudge and a wink.

Joey took a deep breath and girded his loins and said softly, "After school, but she needs me right now in any case."

As Joey strode on towards his girl, the other two J's took a couple hesitant steps to head after him, but both of them were seized suddenly by two very powerful arms.

"Don't." Dmitri said quietly, "You can't help him now, dis between him and her."

Dmitri then let them go and walked away, Jamie and Jeffy looked at each other and were forced to concede that Dmitri was correct.

"God this sucks." Jeffy said as he and Jamie walked in another direction.

"I know man," Jamie replied, "I just want to help him."

"We will man," Jeffy assured him, "But right now we, like, can't."

Jamie sighed in defeat and followed his friend to their closely positioned lockers to get their books for the next class.

* * *

Ed beamed when he caught sight of Evan and his new running partner and other odd-ball friend Andrea and waved at them as he came up as quickly as he could.

"Hey Ed!" Evan said in greeting, "Just the man we wanted to see."

"Huh?" Ed replied with a raised eyebrow.

Andrea gave him a smug satisfied look as Evan explained, "I'm taking Andrea to Casino Night and she's agreed to hook you up man!"

"Cool!" Ed replied with a big smile and then had to ask, "Who?"

Andrea gave him a mysterious smile, "That's my secret for now."

"What no spoilers?" Ed managed to tease, having become comfortable enough around Evan to do it without fear of reprisal.

"No spoilers for now," Andrea replied but assured him with, "I'll introduce you two later, kay?"

Ed agreed, conceding defeat before the battle was joined, since he had a feeling he'd lose and lose badly.

* * *

"Hey guys wait up!" Kevin yelled out as he ran up to Mack and Rex who both sighed with their backs turned to the QB but turned around, fully expecting to be talked _at _about the big game with Oakwood that Friday.

Again.

"Uh is Kevin holding a textbook?" Rex managed to ask before the man in question got within normal speaking distance.

"I was wondering if you guys would study with me in, you know study hall? Since we have it together and stuff." Kevin said to them, and Mack found himself completely and utterly unable to respond.

Rex bounced back first and said, "Sure man, is Britt going to be with?"

Kevin scratched his head in an attempt to remember if they were fighting or not that week, "Uh… Yea she will be."

Rex swallowed a sigh and still agreed to it anyway.

"Awright!" Kevin cheered and patted Rex on the back before running off.

Only then was Mack able to shake himself out of his stupor, "Kevin… Studying?!"

Rex snarked, "Yeah I'm surprised too… and then I remember that we don't get byes anymore, so even our resident idiot-in-QB has to study with the rest of us."

"I know that!" Mack snapped back but his smile took the sting off, "It's just… Bizarre seeing or hearing Kevin having any connection to actual learning whatsoever!"

Rex laughed, "I know but get used to it sugar."

"Sugar?!" Mack exclaimed in surprise, which made Rex laugh again.

"I knew that'd get you!"

Mack grunted, "As long as Kevin doesn't call me that, I'm cool."

"If he does call you that then there are a few questions that Brittany needs to be asking her boyfriend." Rex said as a comeback.

"Snap and Count it!" Mack replied as they started walking to their next hour class and rounded a corner, just in time to see the prone bodies of Irene and her posse, and a swish of blond hair ducking into another classroom.

"Uh…" they said in unison for a minute until Mack had the bright idea of walking the hell away and getting a teacher before anyone tried to pin it on them.

* * *

In DeMartino's class, Ethan was stunned and amazed along with everyone when after the teacher asked Kevin a question, and _he almost got it right!_

"Hey Josh," Ethan said into the silence and looked at his boyfriend, "Is the world coming to an end?"

"Give it a minute." Josh replied and looked around but when the world held itself together he sighed.

"Damn postponed apocalypses!" Jane said dramatically with a shaken fist in the air, which broke the tension and even had Kevin laughing.

"Very GOod KevINI!" DeMartino managed to say after composing himself, "At least you READ the CHAPter."

Mr. D then corrected Kevin's mistakes in his answer, but his gaze lingered on the QB for a while, but it wasn't his usual resentful hateful glare but one filed with curiosity and a touch of hope.

"So on to less dramatic topics," Josh said to Ethan once the class got back on track, "After the jam session I recorded some background music, we can knock out the project tonight, right?"

"Yup." Ethan replied as Brooke passed him a note and after glancing at it jotted down a reply and passed it back.

She read it and smiled and got some fresh paper and wrote a quick reply and folded it and wrote 'Daria' on the front and slipped it to Ethan who slipped it to Josh, who tossed it to Jane, who did a dramatic fake stretching yawn and let the note fall in front of the Queen of Snark.

Daria unfolded it and read it and sighed and wrote a reply that she didn't know much about pregnancy but could locate a few books for Stacy at Books by the Ton, then added a question of if they needed a Baby Name book.

After some more note passing back and forth, it was confirmed that Quinn had made an emergency trip to the bookstore that morning and had gotten the first book of names she could find.

"Now that's dedication coming from her." Daria quipped even while feeling glad that her sister hadn't bailed on Stacy during this like she would have expected her too.

"Quinn in a bookstore?" Andrea snarked from the distance, "I want a picture, otherwise I won't' believe it."

That earned a hearty chuckle from everyone, but attracted the ire of Mr. DeMartino, at least until he saw that it was his good students.

So he turned a blind popping eye.

The conversation shifted to Jane and her declaration of 'Yenta' on Jodie Landon, which no one else was even sure if Jodie was aware of just yet.

"I'll tell her next period." Jane replied with a shrug, "Bob says he's got the perfect guy for her."

"Who?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to think of a non-rich, non-preppy, non-normal type at Lawndale that Bob would think of as perfect for Ms. Landon."

"It's a kid from Oakwood," Jane replied and for some reason Josh got a sinking feeling in his stomach that he already knew who it was.

"I don't really know him," Jane admitted, "But Bob likes him, a JP Taylor, or something."

Ethan got one look on Josh's face and asked him in a whisper, "You know him?"

"He's the new drummer for the Yobs." Was Josh's whispered answer.

"…I'm guessing that this might be a bad idea?" Ethan asked and Josh snickered and gave his man a physical description of JP Taylor.

"Oh and he's Brittany's cousin too." Josh added as if that wasn't important.

"Eeep!" Ethan squeaked and caused everyone to stare at him and he played it off with a, "What?!"

The awkwardness took a while to go away.

* * *

There were stares, some accusing, some curious, some mocking, some just looking, but there had been stares all day.

In his heart Joey suspected that it would level off, at least until she started showing.

"But I'm going to have to get used to it," he thought and then amended, "We're going to have to get used to it."

He gripped Stacy's hand a little tighter as they walked down the halls, and gave her a glance and a warm smile.

She smiled back and leaned her head on his shoulder for comfort and support.

Even while wearing his brave face, his insides were pure mush at the import of what they had decided a few minutes before, having snuck into an empty supply closet and had talked about what to do about the situation.

With their decision in place, Joey felt happy and scared at the same time, something he had believed to impossible.

"I guess a lot is going to change," he thought, "Now that we're going to be parents."

His heart registered another stab of fear because, "_I have no freaking idea what I'm doing!" _Joey thought to himself, "_Shit!"_

He'd be saying that a lot in the coming years.

* * *

"You're serious?" Jodie asked out of reflex after being approached by Jane and asked about having a date arranged for fun.

Jane nodded and said, "I'm not one to pull pranks using people's love lives, besides you look could use a date… And I hear that the Princess Fairy isn't all that it's cracked up to be, so why not skip the suck and have some fun?"

Jodie suddenly felt like the kid being offered candy by a stranger at a playground.

"Uh… Who's the guy?" she asked with a tone that said no evasions would be tolerated.

"Do you know JP Taylor?" Jane asked as a reply and when Jodie shook her head no, Ms. Lane smirked and replied, "Good, then you'll be delightfully surprised."

The evil little laugh that came from Jane at those words before departing gave Jodie paused.

"I'd better ask around." She said to herself, noting that JP's last name was _Taylor _and hoped that Brittany knew something about him.

Which was a bit of a stretch, but desperate times and all that.

* * *

"JP?!" Brittany yelled in a loud squeak while raising her hands to her face in horror, "Oh no! What was Jane _thinking?!"_

"Uh…" Jodie intoned as she got that sinking feeling her in stomach.

"Jodie, JP is like totally crazy! His side of the family is completely nuts! My Dad and like, Uncle Mark hate each other, every Thanksgiving ends in a fight with them and then everyone starts yelling and it hurts my head and then me and JP always get in our own fight and the cops always wind up showing up and tasering us! Tasers HURT!"

As Brittany rambled all this, Jodie was overwhelmed with the flood of information, and decided to put a big smile on her face and began to walk away backwards, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.

Then the chilling voice of doom rendered her plans moot when Kevin came up from behind them and since he didn't see Brittany's face, he didn't know that this was a bad time.

"Hey Jodie, Hey Brit! I just got the tickets for Casino Night, it's gonna rock!"

Brittany for her part wasn't mentally there, instead she was half-way at a Taylor Thanksgiving and seeing JP and seeing _reddddddd._

"Ow!" Kevin screamed as Brittany socked him in the gut, _hard._

"Oooooh!" Brittany roared, "Did you think I forgot about the last school thing we went too and I caught you _making out with ZOE?!"_

Even with the wind knocked out of him, Kevin stuck to his story, "For the 50th time, babe, I was fixing her nose ring!"

"Ha!" Brittany laughed with her emotional state slipping back into the danger zone, "What do you think? That I'm that stupid and stuff?"

At this moment, Ethan and Daria's presence became known to Jodie, it was clear that they had been listening in for a while.

"Should we test the stupidity theory?" Ethan snarked to Daria who smirked at that.

Kevin the meanwhile tried to babble his way out of this, "Hey, I've already told you, smart doesn't matter with a body like mine..." He then picked up on her verbal cues and added, "I mean yours!"

Brittany stomped her foot and pouted, "Hmph! For your information, there are plenty of guys who think I'm pretty and smart!"

"You can visit them in the Head Injury ward at Cedars." Daria snarked to Ethan who had to fight back a laugh, even Jodie smirked at that one.

Brittany whined, "Ooh, I'm sick of this! Maybe it's time I find someone who really appreciates me!"

To his credit Kevin managed a comeback of, "Maybe I should find someone who really appreciates me!"

Ethan muttered to his female companions, "Hello, Mom?"

Kevin and Brittany then broke up for the millionth time, "And this time I mean it!" Brittany added with a roar and another punch to Kevin's stomach so he couldn't respond, letting her have the last word.

As Kevin fell to his knees and wheezed for air, Jodie asked out loud, "You guys don't really think…?"

"Nah," Ethan and Daria sang together.

"That species mates for life." Daria commented.

* * *

It didn't take long for Kevin to find a new date, or rather _she _found _him._

Poor Irene had found herself dumped by Dmitri due to the whole making fun of Stacy thing, and had seen a golden opportunity to move up in the social hierarchy by _dating the QB!_

Brittany heard about that and in a few seconds had made a beeline for Dmitri Bykov who suddenly found himself hooked up with Brittany, who wouldn't take no for an answer.

And who could say no to those breasts? Or those kung-fu fists of death?

After that, for a lot of people the rest of the week seemed to fly by, Ethan and Josh worked on their project for O'Neill's and hung out together, Ethan even watched the Yobs try to come up with original material to play during their 'official' first session.

"Considering the fact that Josh's mom wont' be in town that weekend, and the amount of food and beer we bought… Yeah this practice session is going to become _party _in an hour." Ethan had thought at one point and then shrugged, it would be fun to have a party that didn't involve a rusted out boat.

Andrea found a nice dress in her style and hoped that Evan would be impressed with it, and how it would show off her developing body.

Evan for his part helped Ed rent his first Tux, and showed him the way to pin a corsage on a lady, and just smirked when asked who the lady in question would be.

Tori had landed a dream date with Marco the talcum powder model, and was kind enough to write down all the information for him.

Joe Appleton in the meanwhile did his best to get to know his new potential friends, even though he found opening up quite difficult.

It was hard to trust people, he had been betrayed too many times before.

And of course countless other students did other stuff too.

Then Friday came…

* * *

In O'Neill's class, everyone got to 'enjoy' Kevin and Brittany's presentation on the 'benefits' of sports teams.

Which thankfully had been completed before their breakup because otherwise it would have been as hot a mess as the two of them next to each other in front of an audience.

Since Kevin said something stupid and Brittany kicked him in the balls and then "Hmph-ed!" and went back to her desk.

O'Neill sobbed for five minutes longer than Kevin did, and Kevin had the excuse of scrotal agony.

In that meanwhile, Ethan and Josh just went to the front of the class and played their little presentation on "A Sick, Sad World Approach to Life"

The sounds of Josh playing spacy guitar riffs emerge while Ethan narrates over seemingly innocuous images, "Behold an ordinary day in a suburban High School… Or is it an ordinary day?"

The images shift, the normal looking visuals of kids in a High School that looked like Lawndale took on more surreal and darker tones, the hallway turned into an assembly line, the boys turned into lock step soldiers, the girls into heavily painted wind-up dolls

"This is the true purpose of High School," Ethan's voice said over the visuals, "To convert all of us into drones for conventional society."

Pixilated copies of Ethan and Josh suddenly jump off the assembly line and flee the teachers who turn into soldiers.

"Not everyone wants that life though, and those that try to step outside of the box are always persecuted for it."

Ethan and Josh out run the soldiers and bust through the doors into white light.

"In the end," Ethan said over the whiteness, "If you're willing to stick it out and fight for what you truly want, you will be free of the assembly line, then you can be what you truly want to be."

"The only limits after that are merely the ones imposed by physics… Nothing more." Ethan concluded before the film ended.

O'Neill had since stopped crying and praised them for their presentation, though he only saw half of it.

Then it was Daria and Jane's turn, and while Ethan and Josh paid attention to it, and liked Trent's music, they put their heads into their hands when it was Upchuck's turn and all his was, was his face on the screen with Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in the background.

They were both out like lights after that.

* * *

That night under the big bright overhead lights, the Lawndale Lions were going strong against the Oakwood Taproots, led by their new QB Theodore Wozniak.

Granted as Ethan sat in the stands with his parents, his attention tended to drift to idle thoughts and random bursts of imagination, he knew more about the sport than he cared to, but it just didn't interest him.

"Sports are boring." Ethan thought to himself for the millionth time and noticed that his Mother was glancing at her watch every five seconds while Dad was trying to seem like he was bored but failing miserably at it.

Ethan snickered and whispered to his father, "Mr. Morgendorffer has corrupted you well."

Coyote did a double take and then asked back, "Was it that obvious?"

"Well when you jumped up and down when Rex made that touch down… Yeah it was obvious." Ethan snarked and enjoyed his Dad's embarrassment.

Then there was a roar and Ethan glanced just in time to see Robert and another player knock the enemy QB down, which gave Kevin the opening he needed to…

"TOUCHDOWN!" Upchuck's voice boomed over the sound system and after Ethan checked the score and the time and sighed with relief.

There was no way that the Taproots could win now.

And by the time the game was over and won, the Lions were at 20 to the Taproots 16, and while the Lions and their supporters cheered, the Taproots supporters were dejected.

Ethan used the celebratory air as an excuse to give Ted, who was sitting in front of him a big hug and ruffled his hair and laughed at his shock.

And then Ted hugged him right back and ruffled his hair right back.

While Ethan fell back into his seat with a fit of giggles, he lazily surveyed everything in front of him a brief glimpse at a distance figure gave him a sudden jolting shock that caused the laughter to end.

He grabbed the binoculars from his inattentive father and zeroed in and exhaled a big breath as he took in what he was seeing.

On the Oakwood's side of the field, one of the assistant coaches was glaring at a clip board and Ethan drank in the familiar face, having seen it up close countless times, having tasted the man's deeply tanned skin, felt every inch of his muscles, and had once relished his dark brown hair…

"Something wrong Ethan?" his father asked him from nowhere, startling the crap out of him.

"Uh… No nothing's wrong Dad." Ethan lied and handed him back the binoculars, not looking at his parents lest the lie give itself away.

Of the people in Lawndale, only his parents, Josh, Daria, and Jane knew the story of what had resulted in him being outed in his old hometown in Illinois.

"Well…" Ethan thought to himself as he got up with his parents to go and greet his adopted brother Rex, "He didn't see me and he couldn't possibly know that I live in Lawndale… It's just a coincidence… Let it lie."

He pushed it as far aside as he could and put on a big show of happiness for Rex when he was finally ready to go, having showered and changed.

"Come on man!" Ethan told him with a big fake laugh, "We can still catch some Sick, Sad World at Jane's."

Rex laughed and told him that he'd be taking a raincheck on that since he and Mack had plans of their own.

"Oh ok man," Ethan replied with a smile, "You two have fun then… I'll see you whenever."

But even when he got into his Camaro and began the drive to the Lane's, Ethan found his thoughts turning back to the first man he had loved.

"Ned Flanagan…" Ethan whispered to himself with a mixture of confusing feelings, "Why did you have to come back into my life?"

* * *

At the Casa Lane, Ethan heard some interesting noises coming from Trent's room and was glad that the door was closed, for once.

"I guess he and Paris are having a 'study' session." Ethan thought with a smarmy snark before reaching Jane's room and the safety of her TV.

She was half asleep with Daria, Tom, and Joe, each of them trying to stay awake with sarcastic commentary on the repeated episodes that they all knew by heart and loved.

Ethan sat down next to Joe and got a vague greeting from everyone and within five minutes found himself drifting off a bit.

"Klutzy…" Ethan muttered in reply to… Jane maybe? "I think there's a pill for that…"

Joe then passed out completely and slumped on Ethan's shoulder, for a second Ethan began to shift a bit but found the sensation pleasant enough that he stopped and let the kid snooze.

After a while he joined him in dreamland, using Joe's body as a pillow just as much as it was the other way around.

* * *

Each member of the Yob's was on an individual level at least competent at playing their instrument, Josh in fact was pretty damn good.

However the trick that any band had to learn if they wanted to get anywhere was to learn to play _together, _a much harder task than it seemed.

Since there were four people, each with their own style and vibe, trying to synch it all up, and create new songs and material so they wouldn't turn into a cover band with nothing original to offer.

"At least we don't sound like total suck." Josh thought to himself in desperate positivity as they took another break, Bob went into the house for a soda while JP slipped in behind him for the bathroom.

Jeffy was gulping down the last dregs from his water bottle and Josh found himself staring at his neck as it pulsed up and down and soaked in sweat.

"I needed that!" Jeffy sighed with relief once he was done and sat down on a nearby bench in Josh's garage.

"Heh," Josh laughed as he found himself sitting next to him, "We all needed a minute."

"Yeah," Jeffy replied a bit more… throaty than before, "Who'd have thought that music was so labor intensive?"

Josh gave him a look of surprise and Jeffy added with a grin, "Kidding."

They both laughed and Josh replied, "You think we'll be a smash hit out of the gate?"

"Ha!" Jeffy laughed bitterly, "My crap playing will prevent that from happening."

"Jeffy," Josh replied with a strange softness to his voice as he inched a bit closer and put a comforting arm around him, "Your still learning to play, it's only been a few months since you started, I've been doing it for over a year, and JP picked up drums maybe a month before you first touched a guitar… Give it time man."

"Yeah…" Jeffy spoke oh so softly, "Time…"

Josh started to really notice Jeffy, how strong and developed his muscles were from years of sports, and Jeffy could feel the hidden strength in Josh's arm and grip, nothing overt to the eye but there once you looked past appearances.

Jeffy wetted his suddenly dry lips while feeling even hotter in the stuffy garage, he felt his breath grow heavier and heavier.

Josh was positively panting next to him, his shirtless body bare and gleaming with slick sweat, sweat that for a wild crazy moment tempted Jeffy sorely to taste.

"Josh…" Jeffy said so quietly that it was a whisper.

"Yeah…" Josh replied very heavily, his blue eyes sinking into Jeffy's sepia orbs.

As he sat next to him, Jeffy felt a sickening knot in his heart, telling him that he was in dangerous territory, but something about that made it all the more… thrilling.

"Jeffy, I…" Josh began to say as everything in the universe seemed focused upon the two of them on the cheap wooden bench in his garage.

Then a loud thud brought it all crashing down, they separated with lightning speed just as Bob came in with a six pack of Ultra Cola.

"Hey whatsup?" Jeffy asked with a nervous twitch and a squeak.

Bob took in what he was seeing and his eyes narrowed a bit but he said, "Sodas man, want one? Cool you down and all that…"

"Sure!" Josh said very quickly and snatched on right up and began to chug it.

Bob opened the garage door a bit to let cooler air in and kept his thoughts to himself, but did decide to have a talk with them both later.

"If someone doesn't inject some sense into this the train wreck will be massive." Bob thought to himself as he grabbed his own soda while JP came back in and told them that the Deckers were out of toilet paper.

"Well I hope it got the job done!" Jeffy razzed him and JP smirked.

"No it didn't," JP replied nonchalantly while sitting down at his drum kit, "It's why your Mom will have to get a new box of Kleenexes too."

Once this sank in, JP led the snickering at that, feeling like he was ten years old all over again.

* * *

Andrew Landon, the middle-aged black conservative social-climbing inventor of the folding coffee cup was paralyzed with terror at the apparition that stood on his door step.

"Hey," the figure spoke in a gruff voice, "I'm here to pick up Jodie."

Andrew was at a total loss, but thankfully Jodie came up from behind her father and moved around him, wearing a nice white shirt, tight jeans, the latest Nikes, and a grin of bemusement at the situation.

"Well Brittany did say that you were… unconventional," Jodie said smoothly and then introduced her date to her father, "Dad this is JP Taylor, Brittany's cousin, JP this is my Dad, Andrew Landon."

"Sup?" JP asked.

Andrew managed a very tiny squeak, but otherwise unable to react.

"And we're off." Jodie added as she moved out of the doorframe and JP offered her an arm.

It was only when JP's car moved out of the drive that Andrew Landon managed to moan, "Oh good Lord, no!"

* * *

"I'm sorry for bringing you on this rust bucket." Jamie said to Elsie for the millionth time as they slipped onto the casino floor, and finding the inside just as dilapidated as the exterior.

Elsie sniffed, "Whoever owns this thing is either blind or an idiot, luxury liner my ass!"

Jamie managed a weak laugh and replied, "I was expecting better from it was hyped up, guess the cheapness of the tickets should have been a warning sign."

Elsie gave him a brave smile and said back, "Aw, buck up. Sure the boat sucks at least we have each other."

Jamie beamed at that and laughed as she did a mocking spin in her custom made designer gown, the price tag something that he didn't even want to think about.

Even less so the suit she had bought and had tailored for him for the cruise.

On the casino floor itself were Jamie's classmates, or most of them at any rate, either oblivious or trying to ignore the less than promised glamour and focusing on the free buffet, the gambling, or the social posing games of the popular kids trying to outdo each other.

The last made Elsie adopt a contemptuous look, "Amateurs." She breathed at the whole lot of them and pulled her boyfriend closer to her and grabbed their free gambling chips from a strange looking older gent with long blond hair and a carefree attitude.

"That's our new guidance counselor," Jamie explained as they went over to the roulette table, "I forget his name."

"Don't fret," Elsie said as she put a few down on for any red, "You'll remember eventually."

"Okay!" Jamie replied happily as he watched the wheel spin and spin before landing on 30 Red and cheered as Elsie won 50 bucks on her first bet.

She kissed Jamie's chips and whispered that he should bet big on black and kissed him on the cheek and added, "For luck."

* * *

"Tori is in her element." Evan commented to Andrea as they stood on the sidelines, having just eaten their fill, not giving a damn about healthy living for one night at least.

Andrea thought that he cut a good figure in his suit, he thought she was amazing in that long black gown with the fancy lacy gloves, and had told her as much all through the night.

"Or so she wants people to think." Andrea replied as they watched the spectacle unfolding in front of them.

The popular girls boasting about their dates to each other and making catty remarks about each other in between sweet words and false smiles.

When Evan asked her why she thought that, Andrea explained, "You see out of all of them, Tori is the second-best actress next to Quinn, I've learned to read people over the years. Now yes Tori is proud that she landed that model guy, but reading her body language it's obvious that she finds him boring."

Evan then watched them for a minute while she pointed out the clues and he turned his head a bit and then slapped his forehead.

"Oh my god your right!" he said in less of a _sotto voce_ than intended and a titter moved through the people nearby them.

Andrea chuckled, "Quinn is a bit envious but isn't showing it, flaunting that her date, Brent is the flavor of the week, and more in the group than she would normally be allowed is that Irene girl with Kevin."

Andrea smirked at Evan and added, "And I have a feeling that they are already regretting going out together."

Evan would have replied but he spotted Ed in an old smart suit coming up to them from the buffet with his date.

The track star beamed and greeted his oddball friend warmly and then added, "And a special hello to you Cindy."

The girl in the trapezoid glasses and a nice mauve evening gown smiled back, "Hi guys, how did your trip to the craps table go?"

The mutual wince from the other pair of their double date was enough of an answer.

"I feel your pain man," Ed replied with a regretful thought about his own trip to the blackjack table, "Card counting is harder than I thought it would be."

"When'd you lose count?" Andrea asked.

"About seven cards in." Ed admitted and accepted the laughter at his expense as deserved.

But it didn't make him feel all that rotten, there was no cruelty to it, just friends taking the mickey out on one of their own for the moment.

Then it would all be forgotten.

* * *

"Is that Gibson flirting?!" Stacy breathed to Joey as they sat at the bar, nursing on virgin margaritas and seeing their Principal in action with an older gal dolled up in trampy garish clothes.

"I think it is." Joey replied feeling as nauseous as Stacy now did in the mornings due to her… condition.

Joey scanned the room, hoping that Mrs. M would, or could, reign him in, but alas she was at the poker table, glaring at a defiant DeMartino, the other two players were O'Neill and Defoe.

"Heh," Joey thought at the tableau before him, "O'Neill already has that crying face, DeMartino and Mrs. M are in a death struggle and Defoe is so cool that I'd say her blood is ice… Yeah I think Defoe has this in the bag."

Stacy got a glimpse of what Joey was looking at and said to him, "Penny for your thoughts."

"My thoughts are always free for you." He replied without missing a beat and told her exactly what he thought about the game.

Stacy laughed, "That's so accurate it's gotta be true! But… How do you know so much about poker and stuff?"

Joey grinned, "I watch a lot of late night poker tournaments, once you know the rules half the game is just reading people and psyching them out."

As the laughed and chatted, the very real fears and worries about the coming months and years faded away.

Since for one night at least, they could put all to the side and be carefree.

Then a very excited Brittany walked past them with Dmitri on her arm, looking a bit wore out by the bouncy thing now attached to him.

"Looks like Brit's running him ragged." Joey joked to Stacy.

They both laughed and she commented, "How long until she and Kevin get back together, after he and Dmitri fight?"

"I give it half an hour." Joey said while digging out his wallet.

"I'll be the romantic and say a whole hour." Stacy replied while pulling out a twenty.

"Wanna add a side bet to see if Kevin and Dmitri will fight?" Joey asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"No sucker bets." Stacy retorted with a flounce.

Meanwhile a couple barstools away, the Captain of the Ship was doing Yeager Bombs with an exasperated bartender ready to cut him off.

* * *

To get in the groove, Bob had the band do some cover songs, a couple Nirvana songs, a Rancid hit, and then he grinned and lead them into doing what he viewed as the most awesome song of all time.

"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!" he boomed with pride and his audience smirked, knowing that it had to come this.

A punk, singing God Save the Queen, while putting together a band.

It _had_ to happen.

As the Yobs gave a passable performance, the beer began to flow and the scent of weed began to enter the air.

"Music is always better with illicit substances," Ethan assured no one in particular while lighting up a joint.

He smiled with pride while watching Josh work his guitar like a boss.

* * *

"Well they're better than Mystik Spiral." Daria offered up to Tom as they slipped out of the garage to get something not in the alcohol family to consume.

"Now that's setting the bar high." Tom snarked as they walked past a depressed looking Shaggy who was staring at his unlit joint dejectedly.

"Forget your lighter?" Daria teased her school's resident stoner who simply pulled one out before putting it back in his pocket again.

"I didn't feel like it," he muttered, "Kelly… she…"

He couldn't finish what he wanted to say, so he huffed and shrugged his shoulders and walked away without another word.

"What was that?" Tom asked confused and Daria shrugged.

Jane then rushed up to them from the kitchen with some sodas and noticed who was walking away, "Oh I head that Kelly and him broke up, I guess Shaggy's taking it pretty hard."

She then handed out two of her sodas, but did try to play the, "Well you can get it but it _is _above you…" Until Tom jumped up at the right time and snagged the prize.

It wasn't long before the three of them were making rude, sarcastic comments to each other as other guests filtered in and around the Decker's house and Tom said, "Wow, how did band practice turn into 'party'?"

Daria and Jane both smirked, "Do you know nothing young Thomas?" Jane said mockingly.

"Consider the dangerous lower-class types you've been hanging around," Daria added in snarky sync, "Apparently all we do is drink, take drugs, and have sex all night long."

Then she realized that she had actually said that last bit and blushed furiously while Jane and Tom both struggled not to laugh.

They failed miserably.

* * *

Jake was pretty sure that the conversation was going ok, even though he was fairly certain that the woman who had left with Gibson groping her breasts was the wife of the owner of the ship.

"…And as a cost cutting measure I found these Mexican's who can cut grass _and _swab decks!" The sleazy figure in front of him boasted, proud of his exploitation of the suffering of the illegal and semi-legal immigrants to the United States.

Jake faked a laugh with him and managed to recall that the man's name was 'Lee', "So Lee I was wondering if you were looking for a good consultant to work on…"

He got no further when the bartender's voice cut through the crowd, "Look buddy you've had enough, now get back the pilothouse and pilot the damn boat!"

It seemed like everyone near the open bar was now looking at the drunken older man in his disheveled uniform, his Capitan's hat lopsided on his head, hunched over the bar, clinging to it as if it was the only thing holding him in place.

"Excuse me." Lee said flatly and abruptly got up and headed over to the drunk and yanked him up and began to lead him out.

Until…

"Aye…Aye…Captain…" The Captain of the Ship groaned while now clinging to Lee's shoulders.

"You're the captain, you big idiot!" Lee grumbled as he led the man off of the main banquet room.

Jake laughed very nervously and then told the bartender to get him whatever the captain had just been drinking.

He had a feeling he'd need it.

* * *

Feeling brave, Bob lead the band into trying out some of their new material, so far they didn't have complete songs yet but did have snippets and half-formed concepts that seemed to go over ok.

Then Bob called for five and only then did he hear a boom box in the other room and laughed.

"Well we expected this to happen." He said to the others before heading for the cooler to get a beer then find Jane.

JP went straight for Jodie who had sat through the entire session in a lawn chair, nursing on a mimosa.

"What'd ya think?" he asked her while taking a seat next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders.

"For a first time thing pretty good." she conceded as she got more comfortable with the alcohol in her system, and good tunes in the distance.

"Cool." JP replied warmly.

Jodie then asked if he could tell her a little bit about himself.

JP obliged her, "Well my whole name is John Paul, but I prefer JP, I'm about to turn seventeen and I'm a junior at Oakwood. I love all kinds of Rock music but Punk is my favorite… Oh and my favorite food is fishsticks."

Jodie laughed at the last part, "Didn't see that one coming."

"No one does," JP replied before asking, "So what about you Jodie?"

Jodie snorted, "Where do I start?"

"I've got all night love." JP replied with a cheesy grin to break the ice.

There was something about that grin that made her relax enough to open up to him.

* * *

After hanging out with Josh for a while, Ethan reluctantly parted ways with his boyfriend, "I've gotta piss."

He wove his way through the Decker's house and was surprised at the number of people that had come, and then concluded that they were ones that hadn't bothered to go on that boat trip.

"Old Li would have made it mandatory," Ethan thought with a chuckle as he found the bathroom mercifully empty and did his business quickly and got out before his miracle quota ran dry.

As he wandered back through the house, he began to recognize faces, there was Angel with her new boyfriend Dave, Burnout was nearby with Spike shot gunning pot smoke.

He checked the garage but found it bereft of Josh and with a huff walked back out, as he stepped past the small utility room he heard a voice call out, "Looking for someone?"

Ethan turned and found Joe Appleton stepping out of the room and suspected that the wallflower had been looking for a quiet place.

"Yeah, have you seen Josh?" Ethan asked, and smiled when Joe shook his head in the affirmative.

"I think he went to the bathroom," Joe replied while indicating that Ethan should follow him.

The Decker's utility room was a bit cramped since it doubled as the laundry room, Ethan shut the door behind him and found the eerie quiet a blessed relief.

They made a little idle chit chat for a few minutes before Ethan was confident enough to ask the kid about his life before moving to Lawndale.

"Oh that," Joe replied sadly, "It's not a pretty story."

"It's ok man," Ethan answered back, "If you don't want to talk about it…"

"No it's not that," Joe stated quickly, "It's just…"

He struggled to explain how he felt but words failed him and he gave up and sighed.

"I'll give you the abridged version," the dark haired boy said after a moment's pause, "I had an ordinary life in a bland ordinary town in Oregon, nothing fancy or complicated until I turned thirteen and figured out that I was attracted to other men."

Ethan just gave him an encouraging smile, glad that he was comfortable enough to open up like this, "The kids the quiet type," Ethan thought to himself, "Nothing wrong with that but it's good to build friendships with at least a few people."

Meanwhile Joe began to play with the cuffs of his long sleeve shirt, "I came out to my parents after a few months of getting used to it, my father was shocked but trying to understand it but my mother…"

Joe then sniffled, "She had been getting into Evangelical Christianity behind our backs and she went ballistic."

"Joe," Ethan began to say but he held up a hand.

"I don't need pity." Joe stated flatly, then continued.

"She managed to get Dad to sign off on sending me to one of those Ex-Gay camps… It wasn't pretty." Joe said very quietly while pulling up he sleeves and revealed two matching sets of scars on his wrists and forearm.

Red slashes across his wrists and one going up his forearms each.

"I did this in the second week," Joe said softly and in a tone that showed that he was now partly in the past.

"If one of the counselors hadn't come in to check on why I was in the bathroom so long I would have died, as it was, it was a very near thing."

He managed a very dark laugh, "Not that my mother cared, even in the hospital she was calling me a faggot and saying that I would have to try harder at the next camp." Joe's countenance then grew a bit sterner.

"That's when my father told her that enough was enough, that he didn't care if I was into girls, guys, or anything in between." He then smiled a bit at that before concluding with.

"I was his boy and that he wouldn't stop loving me for anything."

Joe's face then fell and he added, "My mother wouldn't have any of it, she filed for divorce the next day saying that the Good Lord wouldn't want her to be married to a hell-bound sinner. By the time I got out of the hospital, Dad had been forced to move out with our stuff to a tiny apartment in Portland."

Ethan had in the meanwhile moved closer to the kid and had pulled him into a tight embrace.

But Joe kept talking, "We lived in Portland until recently, my Dad got transferred to the Lawndale area to work for HQ of Grace, Sloane, and Page and… that's it I guess."

The dark haired and pale skinny boy smiled softly in Ethan's arms and enjoyed the physical contact and looked up at the beautiful guy with his wavy long brown hair and green eyes.

He was sorely tempted to try and kiss him, but uncertainty and knowing that Ethan already had a boyfriend held him back.

So instead he asked Ethan about his own life, and Ethan Yeager told him about it, only holding back his affair with his gym coach in Illinois.

When Ethan was finished speaking Joe simply replied, "Whoa, wow man this town's been good to you."

Ethan chuckled at that, "Yeah, now that you spell it all out I guess it has been… Just don't tell anyone that I said that."

"My lips are sealed." Joe swore firmly while teasing him with the boy scouts salute.

* * *

Kevin growled in frustration once more, "I'm the QB! Why didn't she want to do what dates are supposed to do?!"

Granted he had gotten the feeling that Irene wasn't really all that into him, but still he was the QB!

And since it was a date, he had taken her to a quiet place he had found in the coat room and had begun to make out with her, but when he had tried to cop a feel she had squealed in protest and slapped him.

Slapped him!

Then said, "I don't go that far on the first date!"

She had stormed out in a huff and had ignored all his (faked) apologies and entreats for another make out session, where he might have a second shot.

"Her loss." Kevin assured himself as he stepped out on the deck, looking for Brit, since he had no doubt that she would be dumping that scary Russian guy and they could hook up again.

Just like it should be.

* * *

"I haven't had this much fun on a date in a loooong time!" Brittany cooed to her blond Russian bear as they leaned on the railings looking up at the big full moon and the stars on the starboard side of the ship.

For his part, Dmitri looked a bit henpecked and his hair and shirt were disheveled due to the hot making out a few minutes before, but he wasn't complaining one bit.

"She's a bit dumb," Dmitri conceded to himself, "But she's got great tits, and she's like a big bowl of ice cream… I can get used to this."

Then a happily oblivious voice cut through their relaxing, "Hey-hey Brit!"

Dmitri and Brittany turned to see Kevin heading up to them, and Dmitri noticed that behind Kevin that the coastline was much closer than it should be.

Much, much closer.

Without saying a word, he put a hand around Brittany's waist and pulled her away from the railing, which made her smile since she thought he was putting the moves on.

And caused Kevin to see_ red_…

* * *

DeeDee was snoring like a buzzsaw in the luxury suite of the Princess Fairy, a bed sheet hiding her shame but not the sins to which she and Jed Gibson had been indulging in.

Gibson for his part had finished lacing up his tennis shoes and was stepping out and thinking, "She was shit in bed… But better than nuthin' I suppose."

He didn't notice that his hand was scratching away at his crouch.

But as soon as he opened the door he found a smarmy gent right in front of him, having been reaching for the door handle himself.

A brief second of shock flew past and just as Gibson recognized him as the ship's owner, Lee began to scream, "DeeDee goddammit!"

But they got no further since the boat felt like it hit something and shook violently and knocked them both flat on their butts.

DeeDee meanwhile kept right on snoring away, but she did mutter, "Oh… back for seconds…"

* * *

Jeffy Grey was three sheets to the wind and wasn't a hundred percent sure where he was in Josh Decker's house but he was _fairly sure _that the door in front of him was the bathroom…

"Oh crap!" he said once it registered that this wasn't the bathroom, it was Josh's room, and Josh was in it, and changing his shirt.

"I'm sorry!" Jeffy said quickly and shut the door and leaned on it, breathing in and out shallowly until he felt the door open and pushed himself off.

"You can come in." Josh said nicely and Jeffy didn't hesitate, his feet took him in and kicked the door shut behind them.

"I spilt beer on my favorite shirt," Josh explained as he pointed at the now stained garment in the hamper, "I hope I can save it, there's a lot of good luck connected with it."

Jeffy smiled at that, "Is that why practice went over so well?"

They both laughed at the little joke.

Josh sat down on his bed and Jeffy took a seat next to him and looked around and said, "Nice digs, comfy bed."

"It's nothing crazy," Josh replied bashfully, "But it's my little corner to dwell in."

"We all need that," Jeffy replied sweetly, "Our own spaces and stuff."

Josh smiled and Jeffy broke out in a sudden sweat and this heart skipped a beat.

He struggled to think of something to say and blurted out, "So lyric wise we're going to need some help or something…"

Jeffy instantly felt like the nerdy kid that didn't know how to talk to girls.

Josh stared into Jeffy's handsome fact and wasn't aware of how he was adjusting his pants, "We could pay Daria to write some for us… She's shown me some of her stuff."

"Hey that's a good idea!" Jeffy replied excitedly, "Her Melody Powers story rocked! I never did get to hear the sequel."

Josh laughed and fidgeted, "Well the coffee shop did turn into a riot, she's keeping those stories under lock and key until she's sure that it won't cause property damage."

Jeffy floated on cloud nine as he replied, "I'm sure we could arrange something… to make sure… that bad things… don't…. happen."

As he struggled to keep speaking, his body moved closer and closer to Josh Decker, who for his part looked a bit disconnected, his eyes half-shut as if he was slipping into a dream…

A static charge flooded Jeffy's senses as his lips made contact with Josh's own unresisting mouth, very quickly their tongues were tasting the alcohol and weed that coated their insides.

Josh melted completely into it until with a jarring shock his inner voice screamed, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

He jerked back, his eyes having flown wide open, Jeffy seemed stunned for a minute before he started to shake.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Josh managed to stammer, "Oh fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

"Holy shit…" Jeffy breathed with growing realization of what they had started to do, "Josh… I…."

Josh began backing up further on the bed as white as a ghost, his finger pointed at the door and he said, "This didn't happen… Just… Just get out."

When Jeffy continued to sit dumbfounded and struggling to articulate something, _anything, _Josh added an emphatic, "Now!"

Jeffy scrambled to get off the bed and out of the room as quickly as he could.

As soon as the door slammed shut, Josh buried his head into his pillow and began to cry into it, his emotions on a derailed rollercoaster that was about to hit the ground hard.

* * *

Jeffy stumbled while rushing down the hallway, looking for an exit of any sort, craving fresh air and ignoring the concerned looks of the others around him found a patio door and stepped out in the night onto a backyard deck.

He ignored the bench and went over to the wall next to the door and slid down to the ground, breathing in an out like he had run a marathon.

Time slipped away and he felt a bit feverish but a pair of combat boots came into view and he looked up and found Bob looking at him with concern, his girlfriend Jane just behind him.

"Jeffy what happened?" Bob asked with concern and growing worry, the thing he had been dreading for some reason came to mind but he shoved it aside.

"I… I fucked up." Was all that Jeffy said.

Bob didn't say anything in reply, he just pulled Jeffy up and gave him a hug and quietly asked him what happened.

"I… I shouldn't talk about it." Jeffy answered in return before feeling red hot tears starting to stream down his face.

Bob brought him over to a bench and Jane stared at the scene trying to figure out what could have caused this and hoped it wasn't drug related.

* * *

"_You what?!"_

Jane went rigid with shock while Bob repeated what he had just exclaimed after having gotten Jeffy to talk.

"I made out with Josh." Jeffy repeated his confession, looking a bit pale and his eyes downcast, "I… I didn't mean to but…"

He trailed off for half a second before offering up lamely, "But it happened."

"Jeffy Grey," Bob said in a hollow voice, "You. Fucked. Up."

"Where's Josh?" Jane asked, speaking up for the first time, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

"Last I saw in his room." Jeffy said very faintly, his head so down all that they could see was the back of his head.

Bob just stared before saying, "Jeffy, You… You have to tell Ethan what you two did."

"I know." Jeffy muttered dejectedly.

After that Bob and Jane struggled to find something to say, but nothing came to mind.

* * *

"Cheap beer and pretzels," Joe said with a smirk at what he had pilfered from the small food table and cooler back in the garage, "The quintessential meal for any American teenager."

"One of them." Ethan said with a slight upward twist of his lips as they leaned on the wall, the door to the utility room next to them.

The various party-goers were either dancing to the music, talking to each other in clusters, and a few couples were making out in semi-private corners.

Joe forced a laugh at that, "Yeah, sounds about right."

Then Ethan noticed that his new buddy seemed a bit downcast when he said it, and he wondered just how much experience with social events that the kid had.

But a very familiar pair of people them came up to them, "Rex, Mack!" Ethan said happily, "When did you two get here?"

Mack answered, "Oh me and Rex went out on a date night for a while."

The way that Mack was grinning, and Rex's blushing was answer enough, and Ethan and Joe had to fight back snickers.

The four of them began to talk and eat, then Ethan glanced up and saw Josh coming towards him, and that one glance revealed that there was a lot wrong.

He was disheveled, his eyes red and puffy from crying, and he looked almost… Ashamed.

"Ethan," Josh said to him very weakly, "I have to talk to, in private."

"Okay." Ethan replied with a touch of confusion and worry at this out of the blue persona flip.

Josh led him away from the group by the hand and brought him to his room and shut the door behind him.

"So, Josh…" Ethan began to ask before Josh looked up at him with big sad eyes and cut him off.

"Ethan, I fucked up."

"…How?" Ethan asked after a moment and dread began to seize control of his body.

Josh sucked in a breath and said, "Jeffy and I kissed."

Ethan instantly felt like a rug had been yanked out from underneath him, the dread turned into horror and he looked at Josh with wide-eyed disbelief.

"What?!"

"We kissed… well made out…" Josh said in hollow, mournful tones, "I… I didn't mean to but it… happened."

He said the last very lamely and sighed, looking like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Ethan felt his body jerk him back into reality and he began to shake, struggling to find something to say, but all he could do was give a yell, but what it meant was impossible to tell.

Was it out of anger? Confusion? Mourning?

Not even he was certain.

But after that he bolted out of the room, ignoring Josh's pleading and repeated refrain of, "I'm so sorry."

* * *

"Where the fuck is Jeffy?!" Ethan yelled at the first person he saw in the hallway, and scared the living crap out of the kid and others in earshot in the process.

One of the bystanders told him that Jeffy was spotted heading out the back and everyone was surprised at the level of speed that Ethan attained by running at top speed, weaving through he crowded house and out the patio door.

He quickly spotted Jeffy with Jane and Bob in attendance and snarled, "You motherfucker!"

Jeffy began get up while saying "Let me explain…"

Ethan didn't give him the chance, he never could remember the sequence of events, but he did remember the feeling of his fist connecting with Jeffy Grey's face, kicking him in the chest with a sandaled foot, and then the feeling of powerful arms wrapped around him, pulling him away.

Someone was screaming the vilest things imaginable.

Later Ethan would discover that it had been him, cursing and screaming with his face red and contorted with rage.

He could hear voices, familiar voices, saying, "It's not worth it!"

Over and over.

Then his focus came back and landed on Tom and Daria, rushing up to him from god only knew where, their clothes a bit askew.

Without even asking what was wrong, Tom pulled Ethan away from whoever had grabbed him and hugged him.

"Come on Ethan," Daria said with Jane and Bob at her sides, bystanders watching all the while, "We're taking you home."

The massive wave of anger that had consumed him vanished like the tide, leaving him drained and exhausted, tears continued to fall down his face, staining his shirt.

He heard whispering between the others as Tom and Bob lead him away from Jeffy, who was still on the ground watching all of this play out with a dazed expression.

He hadn't bothered to fight back, he knew he had deserved it.

* * *

"God this sucks," Evan moaned as he and Andrea stood on the beach, having been forced to wear life vests even though the damn boat wasn't sinking at all, it had just run aground on the shore.

The semi-legal Mexican crew were getting people off using rope ladders, the drunken captain had been the first off, unceremoniously dumped on the beach out cold by a Spanish sailor more worthy of the name.

"How much does it suck?" Andrea asked sarcastically.

Evan laughed and began to think of an answer, when his buddy Ed Parker came up with Cindy in tow and the kid said on the spot, "It sucks worse than being forced to do PE without an inhaler."

Everyone managed a chuckle at that one, then things became more hysterical when the ship's owner came down from the rope ladder, yelling at a garnish looking woman who had been among the first off ship, she had been flirting with one of the first responders, and from what the guy was saying had been caught in the sack before the accident.

"Oh my god!" Andrea said as she made the mental connection, "If I have this right, he's saying that she slept with Principal Gibson."

They all processed this and went, "Ewwww!"

* * *

"I'm sorry about all this." Jamie said as he and Elsie were given medical clearance, even though the worst anyone had got was being knocked out.

Elsie replied lazily, "It's not your fault Jamie… It's whoever owns that deathtrap."  
She then pointed at the boat in question, now marooned on the beach like something out of a movie.

Jamie laughed at this and at seeing Kevin being carried past them on a stretcher, his right eye swollen and quite black, "Yeah… You want me to give that jerk a piece of my mind?"

Elsie smirked, "…Maybe next time, when there aren't so many uniforms around."

She then indicated to the cops, the newly arrived firefighters, the medics, and the reporters who could _smell _the stories to be sold as copy.

Jamie nodded, "Next time… So, you want to get some food?"

Elsie's smirk stayed in place, "It's either that or we go home early… Not ready for that, you?"

"Nope." Jamie replied with his own smirk as he offered and arm and she took it gratefully and they did the responsible thing by ditching the scene and headed to the parking lot.

* * *

"You were sooooo brave!" Brittany Taylor said as she and Dmitri Bykov got into his car, Brittany put her shoes on the floorboards.

"Thanks Brittany." Dmitri replied, "Though I wish I hadn't knocked Kevin out… Too much power in da punch."

Brittany laughed, "Oh no, trust me! He deserved it."

Dmitri nodded, "It is as you say, Brit."

She then cooed, "That's the first time you called me that Dmitri!"

He began to start the car, but she put a hand on top of his and before Dmitri could react she planted her lips on his and he very quickly found himself being yanked into the backseat of his own car.

"She's nuts," he managed to think to himself during a pretty hot makeout session, "But screw it! I'm horny."

And with Kevin KOed… Maybe he, Dmitri could take the girl for his own.

Maybe.

* * *

Harold Pierson-Wells walked into the darkened television room in his families Lawndale estate and quickly realized that his little brother and that slut he had been dating for a while were passed out on the couch with the TV flicking on as their only source of light.

He just shook his head and walked out while thinking, "I hope Stephen dumps the little freak soon before our parents make him do it."

He shuddered at the memory of being forced to get rid of a couple 'unsuitable' matches of his own at that age.

"If you don't do it on your own, it hurts worse," Harold reminded himself, "But it's what has to be done… That girl doesn't belong in our world."

* * *

Ethan's departure had attracted quite the convoy, but in the end, Rex was driving Ethan home in his Camaro, Mack was taking Rex's truck home for him with Joe managing to join them, and Tom and Daria were following in Tom's Jag, and Bob and Jane tailed them in his new used clunker.

Ethan was completely silent, his eyes dead and vacant like the empty void between the stars in space.

Rex didn't bother trying to engage him in conversation, nor did his turn on the radio, the kid clearly needed the quiet.

Once they pulled up at the Yeager's home, and his own now, Rex got out and followed Ethan in, the other cars pulling up just as they entered the front door.

Coyote and Willow were stitching up a quilt together in the living room and were surprised at their early arrival.

They got one look at Ethan and his mother immediately threw down her needles and went straight for her boy and pulled him into a hug and asked him what was wrong.

That was what broke Ethan out of his silence.

"Josh cheated on me." He said in a voice devoid of inflection and emotion.

The tears then came again.

* * *

After making sure that Ethan was at least physically ok, the people that weren't family got the impression that it was time to leave, which meant that Rex, Tom and their significant others stayed, the others scrammed.

As Bob drove Jane and Joe back home he said, "This shit is heavy man, real heavy."

"Yeah I know," Jane replied sadly, "I don't know how I would react to something like this…"

She managed a weak laugh, "I'd probably have done worse to Jeffy than give him a couple punches that's for damn sure."

Bob replied, "I'd never cheat on you, or anyone."

"I know." Jane told him with a smile.

From the backseat, Joe couldn't help but feel a touch of envy at this, wishing that he could meet someone cool like Bob for friendship.

"Or something more…" Joe thought to himself.

Then Bob sighed, "I should have done something though…"

"What do you mean?" Jane asked him confused.

Bob sighed again, "I… I kind of saw Jeffy and Josh interacting and there was obvious chemistry, for a little bit I thought I'd have to say something but I thought they had a handle on it on their own."

"I… I guess I was wrong." Bob finished lamely.

That confession sank in like a brick to the face.

"Wait…" Jane replied a bit more coldly, "You saw them getting into each other and you didn't offer up so much as a hint of this to anyone?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Bob asked her defensively, "Hell what _could _I have said? I struggled with that for a while and I couldn't come up with crap!"

"Anything other than being quiet as a church mouse!" Jane retorted with her voice rising in decibels.

Joe was never more thankful to get home than he was that night when Bob pulled up on his street, the bickering starting to grow and grow between them.

* * *

With Ethan in his room, trying to catch some sleep if he could under the circumstances, Tom and Rex followed Willow back to the kitchen, Coyote was whipping up some coffee and cookies for his guests.

Mack and Daria were talking quietly and when they got into the room Daria said, "We just got a call from Quinn…"

She then told them about the boat accident, and that while there were no serious injuries, "…It hasn't stopped my Mom from calling her old firm, she's going on the warpath against the company that owned that rust bucket."

Everyone managed the first laugh in what felt like forever.

"I'm almost glad we went to the party," Tom thought to himself and then amended, "Almost."

Mack in the meanwhile put a comforting arm around his dejected boyfriend and said, "Ethan's strong, he'll get through this."

Rex nodded, "Yeah, but my brother is going to need us, more than ever."

Mack felt some surprise at Rex calling Ethan his brother but nodded, "He's got us, he's got all of us."

Daria and Tom both heard that and matching Mona Lisa smiles greeted Mack and Rex when they looked up at the two of them on the other side of the table.

* * *

Joey felt the biggest wave of relief in his life when Stacy's checkup at the ambulance was over and she was given a clean bill of health.

"And the baby's alright too." Joey thought with a glance at Stacy's still flat belly.

At this point if anything had gone wrong, it would have been the worst thing in the world.

And Joey Black crossed yet another Rubicon that night.

No matter what was thrown at him, he genuinely _wanted _this baby; he wanted to be its Dad, and Stacy to be its Mom.

Just another step along a very long path.

* * *

"Josh?" Deena Decker asked in surprise on the other end of the line.

"Mom?" Josh asked with a serious case of the sniffles, "Can you cut your business trip early?"

"Why, what's wrong?" Deena asked with growing worry.

"I… I screwed up bad." Josh admitted, "I need to talk to you, face to face."

"I… I'm on my way." His mother told him quickly, shoving her workaholic instincts to the side as best she could.

"…Thank you." Josh hissed with obvious relief.

_Click!_

* * *

Jesse Moreno dragged himself off his couch, having passed out hours before, but now awakened by a loud set of knocks.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'…" he muttered as he opened the door, then froze at the sight.

Jeffy Grey was standing there, a massive shiner on his face, looking quite ashen, and a couple suitcases in hand.

Jesse just looked at him and said, "You fucked up, right?"

Jeffy nodded and told him what happened at the party.

"Then I got home and I fessed up to Monique and she yelled at me and booted me out," Jeffy added, "My parents won't take me back… Can I crash with you for a couple days?"

Jesse just smiled at him and went, "Yeah."

Jeffy managed his first smile since before he kissed Josh and followed Jesse into his apartment and pulled the door shut behind them.

* * *

Meanwhile, in his black and white room, Ethan lay in his bed, flat on his back, eyes wide open staring at the ceiling, but not really seeing it at all.

The only things that gave indication to him being alive was his breathing and the tears that stained his face.

He didn't sleep at all that night.

**THE END**

_Notes: Some lines taken from Jane's Addition, Just Add Water, Brittany and Kevin's fight was borrowed from Daria Dance Party (which I didn't use in Chapter Five). The new characters, Joseph "Joe" Appleton, John Paul "JP" Taylor, Irene Nixon, Ned Flanagan, and Dmitri Bykov are original characters of mine and are not based off of any backgrounders or other Canon Daria Characters. Saul Maxwell is a character that is based off of backgrounder "Black Mane Lion", a brief mention of Saul emerged in an earlier chapter and I've used him in a larger role in 'Curing Jealousy'._


End file.
